Former apartheid-era spy Craig Williamson dismissed as 'absurd' allegations that he ordered a young and inexperienced Security Branch officer, Jaap van Jaarsveld, to plan the murder of anti-apartheid activist Matthew Goniwe.

As he vehemently denied any involvement in the plot to kill the political activists known as the Cradock Four, former Security Branch operative Craig Williamson said it was "ludicrous" to think he would have sent the man who implicated him to carry out such a sensitive operation.

Williamson said he was "irritated" by the "absurd allegations" made against him during the amnesty application of the late Security Branch strategic communications officer Lieutenant Jaap van Jaarsveld, one of the masterminds behind the deaths of the anti-apartheid activists Fort Calata, Sicelo Mhlauli, Sparrow Mkonto and Matthew Goniwe.

Williamson was testifying at the third inquest into the murders of the Cradock Four, which is being held in the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Gqeberha.

The Cradock Four were murdered on 27 June 1985 when they were returning to Cradock from Gqeberha (then known as Port Elizabeth). They were arrested at a roadblock manned by members of the Security Branch, assaulted and killed.

The 75-year-old Williamson cut a cold figure...