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78-478: South African Security Police may refer to: Security Branch , also called Special Branch, a unit of the South African Police during Apartheid South African Bureau of State Security , a state security agency from 1966–1980 South African Police , apartheid-era police force South African Police Service , post-apartheid police force Topics referred to by

156-491: A black Branch officer, caused a scandal when he alleged on death row that he had belonged to one of five death squads operating under the Branch out of Vlakplaas farm, later revealed to be the headquarters of the Branch's Section C1 ( see below ). He claimed that the Branch had brutally killed anti-apartheid activist Griffiths Mxenge in 1981, and that he had participated in or witnessed other extrajudicial killings committed by

234-470: A direct result of torture or as a consequence of a situation in which the circumstances were such that detainees were induced to commit suicide. Prominent deaths in custody following detention and interrogation by the Security Branch include those of Neil Aggett , Ahmed Timol , and Steve Biko . In 2017, a second inquest found that Timol had died after members of the Branch pushed him out a window or off

312-594: A member of her Mandela United Football Club, and famously the killer of Stompie Seipei – had been a police informant. Under Stratcom, the Branch pursued disinformation campaigns to tarnish the credibility of anti-apartheid activists, to sow internal divisions in the anti-apartheid movement (or even provoke internecine violence), and to cover up its own officers' involvement in various crimes. More than once it attempted to frame activists as police informants. Stratcom's activities in relation to media propaganda appear to have grown out of initiatives and networks established by

390-423: A notorious paramilitary death squad , which killed dozens of anti-apartheid activists, many of them former informants or people who had refused to become informants. In the late 1990s, Eugene de Kock testified at length about killings and other illegal acts committed by the unit, which he commanded from 1985 to 1993. In 1996 he faced criminal prosecution and was sentenced to 212 years and two life terms, though

468-681: A pretext for seizing and banning the film. Typical Stratcom activities for which officers subjected amnesty applications to the TRC included: graffiti, fake pamphlets, pouring paint remover over vehicles, disrupting protest gatherings though the use of stink bombs or teargas, theft, threatening phone calls, blackmail, framing, assault, slashing of car tyres, bricks through windows, loosening wheel nuts and bolts of vehicles, firing shots at houses, and arson and petrol bomb attacks on vehicles, homes and buildings. "Hard" Stratcom involved "active measures," especially so-called contra-mobilisation ( see below ). At

546-553: A result, the details of many of the Branch's operations remain unknown or uncorroborated. Several former members, though a small proportion of the overall staff complement, submitted amnesty applications to the TRC and testified at length about the Branch's involvement in extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations. The Branch was established as the Special Branch of the South African Police (SAP) in 1947 under

624-449: A uniquely broad definition of the term. It was also used as the basis to place individuals under banning orders , and its practical effect was to isolate and silence voices of dissent. The Act, which came into effect on 17 July 1950, defined communism as any scheme aimed at achieving change—whether economic, social, political, or industrial—"by the promotion of disturbance or disorder" or any act encouraging "feelings of hostility between

702-529: Is also well known for recruiting askaris (informants, double agents, and defectors), and for the systematic use of torture and numerous deaths in its detention facilities. Branch officers carried out the murders of Ruth First , Ahmed Timol , the Pebco Three , and The Cradock Four , among many other anti-apartheid activists; Steve Biko died in Security Branch custody after being severely beaten by officers. Famous Branch investigations include those leading to

780-424: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Security Branch (South Africa) In addition to collecting and evaluating intelligence, the Branch also had operational units, which acted in neighbouring countries as well as inside South Africa, and it housed at least one paramilitary death squad , under the notorious Section C1 headquartered at Vlakplaas . It

858-565: The 1956 Treason Trial , the 1963 Rivonia Trial , the 1964 Little Rivonia Trial , and the 1990 Operation Vula trial. It also carried out "Stratcom" disinformation and "dirty tricks" operations which some have likened to a "propaganda war" against the African National Congress . The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) found that the Security Branch engaged in "massive and systematic destruction of records" in 1992 and 1993, following an instruction from head office in 1992. As

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936-534: The Bureau for State Security , which van den Bergh left the Branch to run. From the 1960s onward, the Suppression of Communism Act was supplemented with a host of security legislation which expanded the Branch's powers. Detention without trial in non-emergency situations was allowed, for up to twelve days, from 1961. Thereafter were introduced the following: The Internal Security Act of 1982 consolidated and extended

1014-572: The Civil Cooperation Bureau as well as the Security Branch squads at Vlakplaas. Its report, released in November 1990, was "famously vacuous": it did not name any specific units or officers as participants in death squads, and it was denounced by anti-apartheid groups as a whitewash. Meanwhile, sometime in 1990, the Branch sent a parcel bomb to Coetzee in Lusaka . Officers sent the parcel under

1092-512: The House of Assembly  protested certain functions of the act, such as the possibility to ban individuals purposedly advocating communist goals, circumventing the normal rule of law  guarantees in the South African legal system . The government responded by watering down the act, explicitly outlining the right to due process before penalties (i.e. fines or imprisonment) were executed, requiring

1170-517: The Minister of Justice to submit requests to ban to a three-member committee, affording the right to redress by those issued a banning order, as well as exempting labour unions from the sanctions included in the act. These guarantees, however, were not followed reliably, and banning orders emerged as one of the most effective tools of the South African government throughout the apartheid era. The Act

1248-831: The Orange Free State , had investigated and submitted to President F.W. de Klerk a report which discounted the allegations. In January 1990, however, under mounting pressure from civil society, de Klerk appointed Judge Louis Harms to investigate the allegations, under the Commission of Inquiry into Certain Alleged Murders, better known as the Harms Commission. The commission's terms of reference were broad: to inquire into political murders and political violence committed in South Africa "with political aims," and it investigated

1326-571: The Sharpeville massacre ; the banning of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the establishment of their military wings, Umhonto weSizwe (MK) and Poqo ; and the beginning of the armed struggle, including a year-long sabotage campaign by MK. At this time, the Security Branch had a modest staff complement of about 200 officers, of whom about half were black. In 1963, however, Hendrik van den Bergh

1404-574: The South African Defence Force (SADF). It was formed to coordinate and assess operational information, primarily in reference to liberation movement bases (especially ANC and MK bases) in neighbouring countries. In practice its primary function was target identification. Former Security Branch head and Police Commissioner Johan van der Merwe confirmed that TREWITS existed, but denied that it had evolved to include targets inside South Africa, as claimed by other former Branch officers. It

1482-534: The United Workers' Union of South Africa . The funding was paid directly to a secret account of Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi . According to one document leaked by a Branch officer, the support was designed to be used to "show everyone that [Buthelezi] has a strong base." The scandal was highly inflammatory, arriving as it did during a tense phase of the negotiations to end apartheid and amid severe political violence between ANC and Inkatha supporters, which

1560-517: The 1952 trial of African National Congress (ANC) leaders, observed that such an offence might have "nothing to do with communism as it is commonly known." The Act facilitated the government suppression of organisations such as the ANC and others which advocated for equal rights for blacks, coloureds and Indians. The Act forced these groups to go underground with their activism. Because of this Act, groups such as uMkhonto we Sizwe , led by Nelson Mandela as

1638-566: The 1960s, and it interrogated a large number of political detainees during the first half of the decade. With the blessing of Minister of Justice John Vorster , van den Bergh set up a special unit, known as the "Sabotage Squad," to monitor and interrogate anti-Apartheid activists. The Sabotage Squad was a forerunner to later Branch units: it was during this period that the Branch secured its enduring reputation for brutality and torture , with Branch interrogators like Theunis "Rooi Rus" Swanepoel gaining notoriety among activists. Joe Slovo contrasted

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1716-490: The 1991 restructuring. In the 1980s, however, the sections were the following: The best known of these sections, the C-Section and G-Section, are notable primarily for their prominent role in countering resistance to apartheid . The C-Section of the Security Branch, founded in 1979, was nominally its "anti-terrorism" unit, and housed its counterinsurgency and counterintelligence activities, with almost exclusive focus on

1794-570: The ANC alleged were being stoked by a state-aligned " third force ." It led to Vlok's demotion from the Ministry of Law and Order. The Goldstone Commission , established in October 1991 to investigate political violence in South Africa, published a 1994 report containing evidence that members of the Security Branch, especially members of the former Section C1, sold weapons to Inkatha between 1991 and 1994. By then, C1 had been redesignated C10 under CCI, and

1872-602: The ANC headquarters in Lusaka . A series of arrests followed, and at least eight operatives were charged with terrorism, although they were later indemnified. Among those arrested were Pravin Gordhan , Mac Maharaj , Billy Nair , and Siphiwe Nyanda . Two ANC operatives detained in July, Charles Ndaba and Mbuso Shabalala, were missing until 1998, when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) found that they had been arrested and killed by

1950-605: The Branch by the 1970s, but later were formalised and coordinated under the Stratcom unit and selected more strategically for political impact. For example, in July 1988, after the government had failed to have Cry Freedom banned – it was a film about the death of Steve Biko in Security Branch custody, and the Cabinet worried it would be "inciteful" – Minister of Justice Adriaan Vlok authorised an operation in which officers placed dummy explosives in cinemas around South Africa, to provide

2028-559: The Branch officers of this era and beyond with earlier security police in South Africa, who he said were "gentlemanly" by comparison. It was later established that several Security Branch officers, including Swanepoel, received training in interrogation techniques in foreign countries, including in France, which was known for having used torture extensively during the Algerian War of Independence . Only months after van den Bergh's appointment,

2106-551: The Branch orchestrated the raid on Liliesleaf Farm which led to the Rivonia Trial . It is uncertain exactly what intelligence led the Branch to conduct the raid, but it probably had an informant inside the ANC. The same week, Van den Bergh told the Sunday Times that the Branch had "virtually smashed" the country's various subversive political organisations: "All that remains are the remnants, who will be rounded up in time." At

2184-430: The Branch subjected detainees to torture first surfaced in the early 1960s, and escalated as a series of deaths in custody was reported. The TRC later concluded that all branches, offices, and levels of the Security Branch had used torture "systematically," both as a means of obtaining information and as a means of terror, usually with the knowledge and probably the condonation of senior officers. Effectively permitted by

2262-490: The Branch thus secured a broad role in political matters and matters of national security. Perhaps the most famous application of the Act is the prosecution of Nelson Mandela and 155 other anti-Apartheid activists during the 1956 Treason Trial , which followed a series of investigations, raids, and arrests by the Security Branch. The early 1960s in South Africa were characterised by an intensification of political repression, following

2340-483: The Branch, and the Branch's organisational and command structure was reportedly little changed. It was during this period that officers systematically destroyed the Branch's records. In 1991, the Weekly Mail broke the so-called Inkathagate scandal, revealing that the Security Branch, on behalf of the state, had provided R250 000 in covert support to ANC rival Inkatha Freedom Party and R1.5 million to its trade union,

2418-624: The Branch. His claims were corroborated in the Vrye Weekblad by the Section's former commanding officer, Dirk Coetzee , and by David Tshikalange, another Branch officer. Adriaan Vlok , Minister of Law and Order, denied the allegations and said they were part of a plot to undermine the security police "to make it easier to bring about... a Communist state." By the end of the month, the McNally Commission, led by Tim McNally, Attorney General of

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2496-434: The Branch. Initially, they were treated as informants and were paid from a secret account; later, they were officially, though covertly, recruited as SAP constables and paid a police salary. Some – most famously Joe Mamasela and Tlhomedi Ephraim Mfalapitsa – defected entirely and became full-time Branch officers. The use of askaris seems to have resulted in considerable tactical successes, but perhaps more significant were

2574-879: The Compol Building (also called the New Government Building) from November 1963 and then at Wachthuis from 1967. There were nineteen regional Security Branch divisions, including divisions for the Witswatersrand (headquartered in Johannesburg at John Vorster Square ), the Western Transvaal (headquartered in Potchefstroom ), the Eastern Transvaal ( Middelburg ), the Northern Transvaal (Pretoria),

2652-482: The European and the non-European races [...] calculated to further [disorder]". The Minister of Justice could deem any person to be a communist if he found that person's aims to be aligned with these aims, and could issue an order severely restricting the freedoms of anyone deemed to be a communist. After a nominal two-week appeal period, the person's status as a communist became an unreviewable matter of fact, and subjected

2730-763: The Far Northern Transvaal ( Pietersburg ), the Eastern Cape ( Port Elizabeth ), Border ( East London ), the Western Cape ( Cape Town ), the Northern Cape ( Kimberley ), the Orange Free State ( Bloemfontein ), the West Rand ( Krugersdorp ), the East Rand ( Springs ), Port Natal (Durban), Natal ( Pietermaritzburg ), Northern Natal ( Newcastle ), and Soweto . Each division had its own branches, several of which, in

2808-574: The SAP Special Task Force , and many had specific counterinsurgency experience or specialised training, such as in explosives. C1 was responsible for the "rehabilitation" of terrorists: it housed activists who had been "turned" – usually under torture, but sometimes voluntarily – and recruited as police informants, known as askaris . The informants usually returned to their political organisations and infiltrated further into anti-apartheid networks as double agents , gathering intelligence for

2886-560: The SSC. In January 1985, the SSC through this subcommittee approved a new policy, also commonly referred to as Stratcom, which entailed the intensification and coordination of the intelligence services' disinformation activities. The SSC subcommittee, which included representatives of the National Intelligence Service and SADF Military Intelligence as well as the Security Branch, was reorganised for this purpose, and in subsequent years

2964-453: The Security Branch and their bodies thrown in the Tugela River . According to the testimony of a Branch officer, Ndaba and Shabalala were killed after refusing to turn on the ANC. The officer also claimed that Ndaba had previously been a Branch informant, but the ANC denied this and portrayed the Branch as having stumbled upon Vula by chance. Demise In April 1991, the Security Branch

3042-456: The Security Branch set up its own dedicated Stratcom unit, which reported to the Minister of Law and Order and to the Stratcom subcommittee of the SSC. From 1989 to 1990, the Branch's Stratcom unit was run by Vic McPherson. Historian Stephen Ellis said of the projects pursued under the Stratcom policy (an assessment that the TRC agreed with): Although these projects were in theory concerned with

3120-766: The TRC granted him amnesty for the several crimes it found to have been politically motivated. Section C2, headed in the 1980s by Martin Naudé, identified, monitored and interrogated activists. Its intelligence was often used to capture activists, with an eye to interrogating them and recruiting them to C1 as informants. C2 maintained the infamous "Terrorist Album," a large album of photographs of suspected anti-apartheid activists, which informants were encouraged to peruse. What did they think we were collecting all this information about addresses, cars, movement for? To send Christmas cards? — Former member of TREWITS on its target-identification and operational applications Also under

3198-709: The TRC, Vlok conceded both that Stratcom had been official state policy and that it had been illegal and unlawful. Hard Stratcom, he said, was an artefact of the late-80s shift in national security policy towards stricter internal counterinsurgency measures, necessitated by intensifying internal resistance to apartheid. Most people who told the Commission they had been detained said also that they had been subjected to some form of assault or torture associated with detention… Extreme torture such as electric shocks or suffocation frequently resulted in loss of bladder or bowel control. Detainees found this painfully degrading; they were disgusting to themselves. Some individuals gave in under

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3276-404: The TRC, the justifications it provided were often "flimsy." The Branch intercepted private mail and telephone calls and physically surveilled suspected anti-apartheid activists. For example, Soweto Security Branch officers testified that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela , the wife of Nelson Mandela , had been subject to constant electronic surveillance by phone taps and bugs, and that Jerry Richardson –

3354-524: The command of Hendrik Jacobus "Fly" du Plooy. Du Plooy, who headed the Branch until he was replaced by Willem Carl "Sampie" Prinsloo in 1954, said that he was asked to use the Branch "to combat Communism more actively." The Branch became the leading agency in the administration and enforcement of the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950 upon its enactment in July. Because the Act defined communism remarkably broadly – as more or less any form of subversion –

3432-637: The command of the C-Section from 1986 and designated Section C3 was the highly secretive Teen Rewolusionêre Inligting Taakspan (Counter-Revolutionary Intelligence Task Team, best known as TREWITS). Though housed within the Branch, TREWITS was a subcommittee of the State Security Council (SSC), and also contained representatives of the National Intelligence Service and of the Military Intelligence and Special Forces branches of

3510-428: The credibility of the ANC and of her husband. Under Operation Romulus, the Stratcom unit fed intelligence on Madikizela-Mandela – including about the murder of Stompie Seipei and her alleged affair with Dali Mpofu – to national and international media. One of the most prominent post-apartheid "Stratcom" scandals occurred in 2018 when a clip of Madikizela-Mandela was released posthumously as promotional material for

3588-475: The detainee's peers had already informed on him. These interrogation methods were also used by units of the Branch stationed in neighbouring countries, especially on SWAPO activists in Owamboland and Oshakati in what was then South West Africa . In relation to the Security Branch "particularly but not exclusively," the TRC further found that a considerable number of deaths in detention occurred, either as

3666-489: The dissemination of information and disinformation, many involved blackmail, libel and manipulation of such a mischievous type that, in situations of acute unrest, they could lead to murder and other bloodshed. In some cases, measures were taken to perpetuate the myth that a victim who had been killed was still alive… [B]efore being killed by the Northern Transvaal Security Branch in 1986, Patrick Mahlangu

3744-577: The documentary Winnie . In the clip, Madikizela-Mandela claims that prominent liberal journalists Anton Harber and Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki "actually did the job for Stratcom" while working at the Weekly Mail during apartheid. The Weekly Mail was in fact the newspaper which broke the Stratcom story in 1995. When the Economic Freedom Fighters repeated the claim, Harber and Gqubule-Mbeki successfully sued for defamation. The South African National Editors’ Forum has expressed concern about

3822-491: The domestic anti-apartheid movement. The TRC called it the " special forces " of the Branch. ...[A] shallow grave was dug with bushveld wood and tyres. The two corpses were lifted onto the pyre and as the sun set over the Eastern Transvaal bushveld, two fires were lit, one to burn the bodies to ashes, the other for the security policemen to sit around, drinking and grilling meat. [ Dirk Coetzee explains] 'Well, during

3900-417: The duress of torture and gave evidence against their own comrades. Often these detainees would remain silent after they were released because of feelings of intense remorse and guilt and their belief that when their beliefs were tested they were found wanting. — Report of the TRC, vol. 2 The Security Branch had access to all political detainees in the system, including those arrested by other elements of

3978-611: The eighty-one former Branch officers who submitted applications, forty-seven had been based in C1. Much of what is known about the Security Branch was revealed or proved for the first time during the TRC hearings. By the time the hearings began, the SAP had been formally disbanded and reconstituted as the South African Police Service . The Branch's national headquarters were in Pretoria , at

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4056-458: The government in the 1970s and publicly exposed in the 1978 Information Scandal . McPherson, the former head of Stratcom at the Branch, claimed that the Branch nurtured a network of "friendly" journalists, some of whom were paid Branch informants. At the TRC, he announced that he had provided the Commissioners with a confidential list of journalists who had been "friendly" with, sporadically on

4134-483: The internal divisions it wrought within liberation movements. These divisions are exemplified by the spate of necklacings in the late 1980s and by cases like that of Stompie Seipei , whose throat was cut after he was falsely accused of being a police informant. Allegations and rumours that certain politicians spied for the Security Branch or for other intelligence agencies during apartheid are not uncommon even in post-apartheid South Africa. Section C1 also housed

4212-416: The law to prolong detentions indefinitely, officers frequently interrogated activists for weeks or months at a time, often combining different methods over that period. Methods of torture included prolonged solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, dangling detainees from the window, beatings, and electric shock. Also common were psychological threats and intimidation, especially with interrogators claiming that

4290-655: The name of Bheki Mlangeni, a human rights lawyer who had represented several clients during the Harms Commission, but Coetzee was suspicious and returned it to its ostensible sender in Johannesburg. Some months later, in February 1991, it exploded, killing Mlangeni. Another Section C1 operative who testified at the commission, Brian Ngqulunga, was killed by his handlers at Vlakplaas in July 1990. The Security Branch achieved its last major public triumph in July 1990, when its Durban division uncovered Operation Vula . Operation Vula

4368-625: The name of its headquarters at Vlakplaas . It was based on a similar counterinsurgency model used successfully by the Selous Scouts in Rhodesia (itself allegedly partly funded by a special account of the Security Branch) and then by Koevoet in South West Africa, which the Security Branch had helped establish ( see below ). Many of the white officers at C1 were drawn from Koevoet or

4446-436: The north of the country, were at border posts, where the Branch could monitor the movements of exiles. There was also a division for Oshakati in what was then South West Africa . In the 1980s, the Branch had 14 sections, many of which had their own regional units or divisions, and which included research desks for the ANC, PAC, and South African Communist Party (SACP). Several sections were renamed and redesignated during

4524-580: The payroll of, or regularly on the payroll of the Security Branch. This list might well have been unreliable – the one name McPherson disclosed at the hearing he later withdrew when the journalist in question, Fred Bridgland , strenuously denied the allegation. However, the revelations about Stratcom, and the list of friendly journalists in particular, have occasionally been revivified in post-apartheid South Africa, through accusations that certain individuals were or remain "Stratcom agents." Along with Peter Mokaba and Chris Hani , Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

4602-564: The person to being barred from public participation, restricted in movement, or imprisoned. The government justified passage of the Act by noting the involvement of members of the South African Communist Party in the internal resistance to apartheid , the subversive tactics of communist parties more widely, as well as the perceived threat of the Soviet Union in the emerging Cold War and decolonisation. The opposition in

4680-560: The political exploitation of Stratcom as a means to undermining the media. Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 The Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 (Act No. 44 of 1950), renamed the Internal Security Act in 1976, was legislation of the national government in apartheid South Africa which formally banned the Communist Party of South Africa and proscribed any party or group subscribing to communism , according to

4758-535: The principal branch of the SAP implicated in "criminal and despicable actions." The report of the Steyn Commission – written in 1992, partially leaked in 1997, and declassified in 2006 – confirmed that the Branch had smuggled AK-47s to Inkatha from outside South Africa. When the TRC was set up to investigate human rights violations during Apartheid, several former Security Branch officers submitted applications for amnesty and testified. The TRC implied that this

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4836-466: The provisions in these and other laws and remained in effect, with some amendments, until the democratic transition . Police also had remarkably extensive powers of search and seizure. In this legislative environment, the Branch was often able to detain people in poor conditions without the knowledge of their families or lawyers, and it is suspected to have been responsible for numerous forced disappearances . In November 1989, Butana Almond Nofomela ,

4914-452: The roof at John Vorster Square. The verdict in a second inquest into Aggett's death is currently pending. From its establishment, a central mandate of the Security Branch was to investigate and gather intelligence about suspected opponents of the state, both for the purpose of prosecution and for the purpose of guiding and justifying the imposition of banning orders under the Suppression of Communism Act and later legislation. According to

4992-455: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title South African Security Police . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=South_African_Security_Police&oldid=1058024755 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

5070-701: The security services. In the north of the country, many were detained in Johannesburg at the Gray's Building or, from 1968, at John Vorster Square police station, where the Branch had offices on the top two floors. Infamously, the lifts in John Vorster Square only went up to the ninth floor, and detainees on their way to interrogation were walked up the staircase from the ninth floor to the tenth floor. The Branch used interrogations not only to extract information from detainees but also with an eye to "turning" them and recruiting them as permanent agents. Allegations that

5148-431: The time we were drinking heavily, all of us, always, every day. It was just another job to be done. In the beginning it smells like a meat braai , in the end like the burning of bones. It takes about seven to nine hours to burn the bodies to ashes. We would have our own little braai and just keep on drinking.' — Pauw , The Heart of Darkness , ch. 11 The operational arm of C-Section was Section C1, sometimes known by

5226-427: The trial, defendant Elias Motsoaledi told the judge that Branch officers had "assaulted" him during interrogation. Also early in his tenure as commanding officer, Van den Bergh founded Republican Intelligence , South Africa's first covert national intelligence service and a direct offshoot of the Security Branch – many Branch officers were transferred to staff it. By 1969, Republican Intelligence had been replaced by

5304-536: Was an ANC project which sought to smuggle arms and activists into the country and to establish an underground network linking domestic activist structures with the ANC in exile. It was initiated in 1986 but, controversially, had continued to operate despite the resolutions of the May 1990 Groote Schuur Minute . At a raid in Durban, the Branch found evidence of the operation, including communications between underground structures and

5382-487: Was apparently a central target of the Security Branch's "concerted disinformation campaign against the ANC and the South African Communist Party." Officers from different divisions disagreed about whether Madikizela-Mandela had been targeted, but some – among them McPherson and Paul Erasmus – testified to the TRC at some length about attempts to tarnish Madikizela-Mandela's reputation as a means to damaging

5460-474: Was appointed commanding officer of the Branch, and it hardened and expanded during his tenure. The SAP's budget increased significantly in subsequent years, with much of the increase absorbed by the Branch. By 1964, all four floors of the Compol Building in Pretoria, which previously had housed the broader SAP, were occupied by the Branch's national headquarters. The Branch's surveillance capabilities improved in

5538-662: Was effectively reabsorbed into SAP structures. It was merged with the Criminal Investigation Department of the SAP into a new Crime Combatting and Investigation (CCI) unit, the Branch-derived side of which was designated the Crime Information Service. During the merger, the Branch was restructured and functions reallocated. However, the CCI was placed under the command of Basie Smit, the outgoing commander of

5616-595: Was established in September 1986, moved into its own offices in Pretoria in January 1987, and was disbanded in 1992. Its existence was not public knowledge until the TRC hearings. Under the leadership of Piet Goosen and Craig Williamson , the G-Section of the Security Branch carried out operations outside South Africa, like C-Section with a focus on anti-apartheid activism and thus on South African activists in exile. Section G1

5694-862: Was forced to write his family a letter which was then posted in Botswana, thereby creating the illusion that he had gone into exile. His family believed this and eagerly awaited his return in the early 1990s. — Report of the TRC, vol. 6 Elsewhere, the TRC defined Stratcom as "a form of psychological warfare waged by both conventional and unconventional means." According to former Branch officers, Stratcom had both "hard" and "soft" sides. The "soft" operations involved propaganda and disinformation ( see below ), and general "dirty tricks," especially harassing and intimidating activists "by damaging their property; constant and obvious surveillance; making threatening phone calls, and firing shots at houses or throwing bricks through windows." These were already fairly routine for

5772-491: Was ostensibly responsible for investigating illegal trafficking in weapons. Goldstone Commission investigators also found that, during the inquiry, the head of the C-Section had ordered the destruction of all documentation relating to SAP's relationship with Inkatha. According to the Mail & Guardian , the Commission advised President F. W. de Klerk to give "urgent attention" to the former Security Branch, which it had found to be

5850-407: Was partly due to Eugene de Kock , the prolific commander of operational unit C1 at Vlakplaas from 1985. He was one of the first people to submit an amnesty application, and he proved eager to disclose in detail the crimes of the Branch and the names of officers involved. About half of the amnesty applications from former Security Branch officers were in relation to incidents involving de Kock, and, of

5928-673: Was responsible for foreign intelligence, Section G2 for Strategic Communications, and Section G3 for counterespionage. Its intelligence network in Africa (the "Africa Desk") was based in Malawi and focused on Zambia and Tanzania; in Europe, the network was sometimes based in London and sometimes in Brussels. One of the objectives of the Section was the infiltration of ANC and other anti-apartheid structures abroad – it

6006-675: Was revealed at the TRC that an anti-apartheid group in Spain in the 1980s had been set up at Williamson's suggestion, funded by the G-Section, and headed by a Branch agent. Other activities of the Section in foreign countries included: Housed in the G-Section (and in the D-Section after restructuring in the early 1990s) was the Branch's Stratcom unit, so named after the Strategic Communications Branch subcommittee ("Tak Strategiese Kommunikasie," TSK; best known as Stratcom or Stratkom) of

6084-415: Was worded in such a way that anyone who opposed government policy could be deemed a communist. Since the Act explicitly declared that communism sought to encourage racial disharmony, it was frequently used to legally gag critics of racial segregation and apartheid . The Act defined communism so sweepingly that defendants were frequently convicted of "statutory communism". Justice Frans Rumpff , presiding in

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