The South African Intelligence Services: From Apartheid to Democracy, 1948-2005

320 Pages·2010·2.445 MB·English

by  Kevin A. O'Brien

The South African Intelligence
Services
This book is the first full history of South African intelligence and provides
a detailed examination of the various stages in the evolution of South Afri-
ca’s intelligence organisations and structures.
Covering the apartheid period of 1948–1990, the transition from apart-
heid to democracy of 1990–1994, and the post- apartheid period of new
intelligence dispensation from 1994–2005, this book examines not only
the apartheid government’s intelligence dispensation and operations, but
also those of the African National Congress, and its partner, the South
African Communist Party (ANC/SACP) – as well as those of other libera-
tion movements and the “independent homelands” under the apartheid
system. Examining the civilian, military and police intelligence structures
and operations in all periods, as well as the extraordinarily complicated
apartheid government’s security bureaucracy (or “securocracy”) and its
structures and units, the book discusses how South Africa’s Cold War
“position” influenced its relationships with various other world powers,
especially where intelligence co- operation came to bear. It outlines South
Africa’s regional relationships and concerns – the foremost being its activ-
ities in South- West Africa (Namibia) and its relationship with Rhodesia
through 1980.
Finally, it examines the various legislative and other governance bases
for the existence and operations of South Africa’s intelligence structures –
in all periods – and the influences that such activities as the Rivonia Trial
(at one end of the history) or the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(at the other end) had on the evolution of these intelligence questions
throughout South Africa’s modern history.
This book will be of great interest to all students of South African pol-
itics, intelligence studies and international politics in general.
Kevin A. O’Brien has served for a number of years as a senior advisor to
Western government and critical infrastructure sectors on public security
and intelligence matters. He is currently a senior analyst with the Govern-
ment of Canada. He has a PhD in International Politics (Security Studies)
from the University of Hull.
Studies in Intelligence Series
General Editors: Richard J. Aldrich and Christopher Andrew
ISSN: 1368–9916
British Military Intelligence in the Intelligence Analysis and
Palestine Campaign 1914–1918 Assessment
Yigal Sheffy Edited by David Charters,
A. Stuart Farson and Glenn P. Hastedt
British Military Intelligence in the
Crimean War, 1854–1856 TET 1968
Stephen M. Harris Understanding the surprise
Ronnie E. Ford
Signals Intelligence in World War II
Edited by David Alvarez Intelligence and Imperial Defence
British Intelligence and the
Knowing Your Friends defence of the Indian Empire
Intelligence inside alliances 1904–1924
and coalitions from 1914 to the Richard J. Popplewell
Cold War
Edited by Martin S. Alexander Espionage
Past, present, future?
Eternal Vigilance Edited by Wesley K. Wark
50 years of the CIA
Edited by Rhodri Jeffreys- Jones and The Australian Security Intelligence
Christopher Andrew Organization
An unofficial history
Nothing Sacred Frank Cain
Nazi espionage against the
Vatican, 1939–1945 Policing Politics
David Alvarez and Security intelligence and the liberal
Revd. Robert A. Graham democratic state
Peter Gill
Intelligence Investigations
How Ultra changed history From Information to Intrigue
Ralph Bennett Studies in Secret Service based on
the Swedish Experience 1939–45
C.G. McKay
Dieppe Revisited Intelligence Services in the
A documentary investigation Information Age
John Campbell Michael Herman
More instructions from the centre Espionage and the Roots of the
Christopher and Oleg Gordievsky Cold War
The conspiratorial heritage
Controlling intelligence David McKnight
Edited by Glenn P. Hastedt
Swedish Signal Intelligence
Spy Fiction, Spy Films and Real 1900–1945
Intelligence C.G. McKay and Bengt Beckman
Edited by Wesley K. Wark
The Norwegian Intelligence
Security and Intelligence in a Service 1945–1970
Changing World Olav Riste
New perspectives for the 1990s
Edited by A. Stuart Farson, Secret Intelligence in the
David Stafford and Wesley K. Wark Twentieth Century
Edited by Heike Bungert,
A Don at War Jan G. Heitmann and Michael Wala
Sir David Hunt KCMG, OBE (reprint)
The CIA, the British Left and the
Intelligence and Military Cold War
Operations Calling the tune?
Edited by Michael I. Handel Hugh Wilford
Leaders and Intelligence Our Man in Yugoslavia
Edited by Michael I. Handel The story of a Secret Service
operative
War, Strategy and Intelligence Sebastian Ritchie
Michael I. Handel
Understanding Intelligence in the
Strategic and Operational Twenty- First Century
Deception in the Second World Journeys in shadows
War Len Scott and Peter Jackson
Edited by Michael I. Handel
MI6 and the Machinery of Spying
Codebreaker in the Far East Philip H.J. Davies
Alan Stripp
Twenty- First Century Intelligence
Intelligence for Peace Edited by Wesley Wark
Edited by Hesi Carmel
Intelligence and Strategy British Intelligence and the Arab
Selected essays Revolt
John Robert Ferris The first modern intelligence war
Polly A. Mohs
The US Government, Citizen
Groups and the Cold War Exploring Intelligence Archives
The state−private network Enquiries into the secret state
Edited by Helen Laville and Edited by R. Gerald Hughes,
Hugh Wilford Peter Jackson, and Len Scott
Peacekeeping Intelligence US National Security, Intelligence
New players, extended boundaries and Democracy
Edited by David Carment and The Church Committee and the
Martin Rudner war on terror
Edited by Russell A. Miller
Special Operations Executive
A new instrument of war Intelligence Theory
Edited by Mark Seaman Key questions and debates
Edited by Peter Gill, Stephen Marrin
Mussolini’s Propaganda Abroad and Mark Phythian
Subversion in the Mediterranean
and the Middle East, 1935–1940 East German Foreign Intelligence
Manuela A. Williams Myth, reality and controversy
Edited by Thomas Wegener Friis,
The Politics and Strategy of Kristie Macrakis and
Clandestine War Helmut Müller-Enbergs
Special operations executive,
1940–1946 Intelligence Cooperation and the
Neville Wylie War on Terror
Anglo- American security relations
Britain’s Secret War against Japan, after 9/11
1937–1945 Adam D.M. Svendsen
Douglas Ford
A History of the Egyptian
US Covert Operations and Intelligence Service
Cold War Strategy A history of the Mukhabarat
Truman, secret warfare and the 1910–2009
CIA, 1945–53 Owen L. Sirrs
Sarah- Jane Corke
The South African Intelligence
Stasi Services
Shield and sword of the party From apartheid to democracy,
John C. Schmeidel 1948–2005
Kevin A. O’Brien
The South African
Intelligence Services
From apartheid to democracy,
1948–2005
Kevin A. O’Brien
First published 2011
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2011.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 2011 Kevin A. O’Brien
The right of Kevin A. O’Brien to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
O’Brien, Kevin A.
The South African intelligence services: from apartheid to
democracy, 1948–2005/Kevin A. O’Brien.
p. cm.
1. Intelligence service–South Africa–History. 2. National security–
South Africa–History. 3. South Africa–Politics and government. I.
Title.
JQ1929.I6O37 2010
327.1268009'045–dc22
2010017317
ISBN 0-203-84061-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN13: 978-0-415-43397-6 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-84061-0 (ebk)
For my girls

Contents
List of illustrations xi
Acknowledgements xii
List of abbreviations xvi
1 Introduction: South African intelligence in revolution
and counter-r evolution 1948–2005 1
2 The birth of South Africa’s intelligence capability and
the rise of the “securocracy”, 1948–1972 13
3 “Total Strategy” and the “securocratisation” of the
government, 1972–1978 41
4 Hydra: the rise of the national intelligence and
counter-r evolutionary structures, 1978–1983 63
5 Carrot and stick: the domestic COIN paradigm,
1980–1985 95
6 The assassins’ web: the growth of counter- revolutionary
warfare intelligence, 1979–1985 116
7 Crossing the Rubicon: “the gloves come off ” for a total
counter-r evolutionary strategy, 1985–1990 138
8 Negotiating a settlement: reform and retrenchment
for all, 1990–1994 172
9 Progress and problems: South Africa’s new intelligence
dispensation, 1994–2005 204