Bureau Of State Security
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The Bureau for State Security (; also known as the Bureau of State Security (BOSS)) was the main South African state
intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy obj ...
from 1969 to 1980. A high-budget and secretive institution, it reported directly to the
prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
on its broad national security mandate. Under this mandate, it was at the centre of the
Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
state's domestic intelligence and foreign intelligence activities, including
counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN, or NATO spelling counter-insurgency) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the ac ...
efforts both inside South Africa and in neighbouring countries. Like other appendages of the Apartheid security forces, it has been implicated in human rights violations, political repression, and extra-judicial killings. For most of its existence, BOSS was headed by General Hendrik van den Bergh, who, while special Security Adviser to Prime Minister
John Vorster Balthazar Johannes "B. J." Vorster (; 13 December 1915 – 10 September 1983), better known as John Vorster, was a South African politician who served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978 and the fourth state president of So ...
, was instrumental in its establishment. The
Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...
saw the creation of BOSS as an example of the growing
National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...
politicisation of South African law enforcement, intelligence and security services, which over time was able to dominate both the South African Government and culture, while in turn being dominated by Prime Minister Vorster's office. Even as BOSS cooperated closely with other parts of the intelligence and security services – especially the
South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Fo ...
, the
Department of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral re ...
, and the Security Branch of the
South African Police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...
– they were frequently locked in an extremely hostile competition over funding, power, and resources. General van den Bergh resigned as director-general in 1978 in the wake of the
Muldergate scandal The Muldergate scandal, also known as the Information Scandal or Infogate, was a South African political scandal involving a secret propaganda campaign conducted by the apartheid Department of Information. It centred on revelations about the depa ...
, and BOSS was renamed the Department of National Security. In the same year, Vorster was replaced as prime minister by defence minister,
P. W. Botha Pieter Willem Botha, ( , ; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006) was a South African politician who served as the last Prime Minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and as the first executive State President of South Africa from 1984 until ...
, whose government pursued a protracted restructuring of the intelligence services, culminating in the replacement of the department with the National Intelligence Service in 1980.


Background

Though BOSS was not formally established and legislated until May 1969, it is generally understood to have been operating from late 1968. It replaced the
Republican Intelligence Republican Intelligence (RI) was an intelligence agency and secret police force in South Africa from 1961 to 1969. It was established after South Africa became a republic and withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations, cutting ties with British in ...
unit of the Security Branch of the
South African Police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Af ...
. Under Minister of Justice
John Vorster Balthazar Johannes "B. J." Vorster (; 13 December 1915 – 10 September 1983), better known as John Vorster, was a South African politician who served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978 and the fourth state president of So ...
, Republican Intelligence and the police generally had benefitted from an expansion of their powers, through legislation such as the Sabotage Act of 1962 and the General Law Amendment Act of 1963, which allowed
arbitrary arrest and detention Arbitrary arrest and detention is the arrest and detention of an individual in a case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that they committed a crime against legal statute, or in which there has been no proper due process of law or order. ...
. However, in the middle of 1968, the Cabinet approved the creation of a centralised security service. On 28 August 1968, Hendrik van den Bergh, the head of the Security Branch and Deputy Police Commissioner, was instructed to start planning the new organisation. On the 1 October, he was promoted to the rank of General and appointed special Security Adviser to Vorster, who had become prime minister after the assassination of
Hendrik Verwoerd Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (; 8 September 1901 – 6 September 1966), also known as H. F. Verwoerd, was a Dutch-born South African politician, scholar in applied psychology, philosophy, and sociology, and newspaper editor who was Prime Mini ...
. Vorster and van der Bergh were close allies – they were both former members of the pro-Nazi
Ossewabrandwag The ''Ossewabrandwag'' (OB) (, from and - ''Ox-wagon Sentinel'') was a pro-Nazi Afrikaner nationalist organization with strong ties to National Socialism, founded in South Africa in Bloemfontein on 4 February 1939. It was strongly opposed to ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and had been imprisoned for
sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...
together. Because of this close association, and the extensive powers he had under his advisory role, van der Bergh was seen as "untouchable," which led to tensions within the state that were only exacerbated by the establishment of "super-security" structure BOSS. By March 1969, the skeleton of a new security service began to emerge in the projected expenditures for the 1969–70 financial year. R5.32 million was allocated to the secret services, a 189 percent increase over the previous year, with R4.06 million allocated to the Prime Minister's office for a new security section under van den Bergh. Minister of the Interior S.L. Muller described the proposed agency as a coordinating body which would be staffed by experienced security and intelligence personnel from other departments. The budget of the military intelligence division was concurrently reduced from R830 000 in the previous year to R39 000, which initiated a continuous struggle for power between military intelligence and BOSS which lasted throughout the 1970s.


Formal establishment

On 16 May 1969, ''Government Notice No. 808'' formally established the Bureau for State Security, with retrospective effect from 1 May, as a department of state under the Prime Minister. Van den Bergh was appointed at its head. According to the notice, BOSS's functions were:
# to investigate all matters affecting the security of the State, to correlate and evaluate the information collected, and, where necessary, to inform and advise the Government, interested Government departments, and other bodies in regard thereto; and # to perform such other functions and responsibilities as may be determined from time to time.
In the same period, a series of related legislation was introduced in Parliament: the Public Service Amendment Bill on 13 May; the Security Services Special Account Bill on 19 May; and the General Law Amendment Bill on 4 June. All three bills were passed that winter. The Public Service Amendment Act of 1969 outlined BOSS's structure – significantly, BOSS was established under the direct and exclusive control of the Prime Minister, in contrast to other public bodies, which were partly overseen by the Public Service Commission. The Security Services Special Account Act of 1969 established a "Special Account" on BOSS's books, which could be expended on confidential items at the Minister's approval and which, unlike other state-funded funded accounts, would not be subject to the annual audit. Finally, and most controversially, the General Law Amendment Act of 1969 included a provision which authorised the Prime Minister, his nominee, or any Cabinet Minister to veto the provision of any evidence or documents to any court or statutory body, provided the evidence or documents were "prejudicial to the interests of the State or public security." The Act also made it an offence to disclose any "security matter," including any matter relating to BOSS or any person's relationship to BOSS. These amendments were met with alarm among liberal and anti-Apartheid civil society groups, with opposition politician
Alex Hepple Alexander Hepple (28 August 1904 – 16 November 1983) was a trade unionist, politician, anti-apartheid activist and author. He was the last leader of the South African Labour Party. Hepple was born in La Rochelle, a suburb of Johannesburg to T ...
likening BOSS to the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
.


Potgieter Commission

On 5 September 1969, Vorster formed a commission led by Justice H.J. Potgieter to establish the guidelines and mission for intelligence gathering by BOSS and military intelligence. The Commission to Inquire into Certain Intelligence Aspects of State Security, known better as the Potgieter Commission, investigated clashes between the two organisations over who had primary responsibility for intelligence gathering in South Africa. As van den Bergh was a close ally of Vorster, military intelligence saw it as a foregone conclusion that BOSS would achieve favour. The report of the Commission, released on 2 February 1972, led to the enactment on 24 May of the Security Intelligence and State Security Council Act of 1972. The Act formalised the functions and the brief of BOSS, and also established the
State Security Council The State Security Council (SSC) was formed in South Africa in 1972 to advise the government on the country's national policy and strategy concerning security, its implementation and determining security priorities. Its role changed through the pr ...
, which replaced the Cabinet State Security Committee and became the government's national policy centre for national security. The Council was supposed to coordinate information gathered by BOSS and other entities, thus ensuring that none could attempt to dominate the others politically, but this system ultimately failed to reduce the rivalry among different security and intelligence agencies.


Organisational structure

BOSS reportedly comprised the following departments: * Subversion * Counter-Espionage * Political and Economic Espionage * Military Intelligence * Administration * National Evaluation, Research and Special Studies As a department of state, it was headed by a
Director-General A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...
, who for most of its existence was van den Bergh.


Activities

Other intelligence divisions, including military intelligence and the Security Branch, were required to submit intelligence to BOSS. By the late 1970s, it was thought to employ more than 1 000 agents, many of whom worked undercover.


Internal surveillance

BOSS was involved in gathering and assessing intelligence about anti-Apartheid and liberation movements, including identifying targets for raids, both in South Africa and in neighbouring countries. For example, Charles Sebe, before he became security chief in the
Ciskei Ciskei ( , meaning ''on this side of Great Kei River,
he river The He River is a tributary of the Xi River in Guangxi and Guangdong provinces in China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it ...
Kei''), officially the Republic of Ciskei (), was a Bantustan for the Xhosa people, located in the southeast of South Africa. It covered an area of , almost entirely surrounded b ...
homeland, was a BOSS agent in
King William's Town Qonce, formerly King William's Town, is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River (Eastern Cape), Buffalo River. The town is about northwest of the Indian Ocean port of East London, South Africa, ...
, where BOSS was investigating local chapters of the
Black Consciousness Movement The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Af ...
. In late 1979 and early 1980, the British ''
Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Fiction * ''Observer'' (novel), a 2023 science fiction novel by Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress * ''Observer'' (video game), a cyberpunk horr ...
'' published allegations – substantiated by documents leaked by a former BOSS agent – that BOSS, then known as the Department of National Security, had been intercepting the mail and private telephone calls of prominent politicians and civil society leaders, including
Alan Paton Alan Stewart Paton (11 January 1903 – 12 April 1988) was a South African writer and anti-apartheid activist. His works include the novels '' Cry, the Beloved Country'' (1948), '' Too Late the Phalarope'' (1953), and the short story ''The Wa ...
,
André Brink André Philippus Brink (29 May 1935 – 6 February 2015) was a South African novelist, essayist and poet. He wrote in both Afrikaans and English and taught English at the University of Cape Town. In the 1960s Brink, Ingrid Jonker, Etienne Lerou ...
, and
Helen Suzman Helen Suzman, Order for Meritorious Service, OMSG, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, DBE (née Gavronsky; 7 November 1917 – 1 January 2009) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and p ...
.


Propaganda

As was revealed in the Information Scandal of 1978, BOSS acted as banker for the Department of Information in respect of a secret
slush fund A slush fund is a fund or account used for miscellaneous income and expenses, particularly when these are corrupt or illegal. Such funds may be kept hidden and maintained separately from money that is used for legitimate purposes. Slush funds m ...
channelled from the Department of Defence and used to fund a series of propaganda projects, including the establishment of the ''
Citizen Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality ...
'', a pro-government newspaper. Some of BOSS's own budget was occasionally used for the same purpose. It is unclear exactly what role BOSS played in the propaganda campaign at the heart of the scandal, but the Department of Information relied on BOSS intelligence. Van den Bergh was certainly closely involved in the planning and implementation of the campaign, and other BOSS officials may also have been.


Z-Squad and alleged extra-judicial killings

At the Erasmus Commission of inquiry following the
Muldergate The Muldergate scandal, also known as the Information Scandal or Infogate, was a South African political scandal involving a secret propaganda campaign conducted by the apartheid Department of Information. It centred on revelations about the depa ...
scandal, van den Bergh hinted that murder was within the scope of BOSS's duties: "I have enough men to commit murder if I tell them to kill. I don't care who the prey is. These are the type of men I have." Former BOSS agents later claimed that BOSS was involved in extra-judicial killings through a covert operational unit formed in the early 1970s and known as the "Z-Squad." Others confirmed that the Z-Squad existed but denied that it was involved in political killings. The Z-Squad was linked to the 1977 assassination of NP politician Robert Smit and his wife; the 1978 assassination of Rick Turner; and the February 1974 cross-border assassinations by letter bombs of anti-Apartheid activists John Dube ('Boy Mvemve') of
Umkhonto weSizwe uMkhonto weSizwe (; abbreviated MK; ) was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC), founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government to brin ...
and Onkgopotse Tiro of SASO. It has also been alleged that the Z-Squad specialised in interrogating South Africans who had been captured fighting for nationalist movements in
Rhodesia Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...
and Mozambique, some of whom were killed after interrogation. The
Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...
(TRC) concluded in its final report that BOSS was "possibly" involved in extra-judicial killings, and probably responsible for the murders of Dube and Tiro.


Operations in southern African countries

The TRC heard evidence that BOSS and the
South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Fo ...
(SADF) jointly led Operation Plathond, under which Zambians were trained for destabilisation operations against the pro-ANC
Kaunda Kaunda is an African surname that may refer to the following notable people: * Betty Kaunda (1928–2012), First Lady of Zambia, wife of Kenneth * Billy Kaunda, Government minister of Malawi * John Kaunda, Zambian football goalkeeper * Kenneth Kaun ...
government. The TRC was not able to corroborate the claims and details of the Operation remain opaque. However, close links among BOSS and other intelligence services – especially
PIDE The International and State Defense Police (; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of the PIDE were the border, immigration and emigrati ...
of colonial Mozambique and the Rhodesian
Central Intelligence Organisation The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is the national intelligence agency of Zimbabwe. It was conceived as the external intelligence-gathering arm of the British South Africa Police Special Branch in the early 1960s, under the Southern Rh ...
and security police – are well-documented and dated back at least to 1969. The agencies coordinated their
counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN, or NATO spelling counter-insurgency) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the ac ...
efforts in southern Africa and discussed cooperating on covert operations against Kaunda's government; and BOSS channelled "material support" directly from the South African government to intelligence services in Angola and Mozambique. BOSS may also have had a relationship with the American
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
(CIA) – van den Bergh received CIA training before BOSS was established.


Demise

In the wake of the Information Scandal, which implicated both BOSS and Vorster, van den Bergh resigned in June 1978 and was replaced by Alec van Wyk as acting Director-General. On 1 September 1978, BOSS was renamed the Department of National Security (DONS). On 20 September, Vorster resigned and was replaced by his Defence Minister, P.W. Botha. Botha's ascension increased the influence of SADF and especially of military intelligence. According to the TRC, the dominance of BOSS and the Security Branch had already began to wane in the late 1970s, amid what was later described as "years of illegality, financial abuse and political meddling" at BOSS/DONS. Botha brought BOSS under tighter executive control. He also appointed
Kobie Coetsee Hendrik Jacobus Coetsee (19 April 1931 – 29 July 2000), known as Kobie Coetsee, was a South African lawyer, National Party politician and administrator as well as a negotiator during the country's transition to universal democracy. Biograp ...
, Deputy Defence and Intelligence Minister, to lead a commission of inquiry into intelligence gathering in South Africa and in particular into the question of who would be the lead agency. At the same time, the Erasmus Commission was investigating the Information Scandal. Believing that the outcome of neither inquiry would be to the advantage of BOSS/DONS, officials began to shred any documentation that could be used against them. In November 1979, Botha appointed
Niel Barnard Lukas Daniel Barnard (14 June 1949 – 13 January 2025), known as Niel Barnard, was a South African academic and intelligence chief who was the head of South Africa's National Intelligence Service from 1979 until 1992 and was notable for his ...
to BOSS/DONS, with a view to having Barnard lead its transformation. Barnard was promoted to Director-General in February 1980, and, at the same time, Botha announced that BOSS/DONS would become the National Intelligence Service. In this new iteration, BOSS/DONS was restructured to focus on research and analysis, with its covert operational functions transferred to the Security Branch.


References


Further reading

* * * Swanepoel, Petrus Cornelius (2007).
Really Inside BOSS: A Tale of South Africa's Late Intelligence Service (and Something about the CIA)
'. Piet Swanepoel. . *


External links


Hendrik van den Bergh denies allegations against BOSS
(Associated Press, 2 July 1979) {{DEFAULTSORT:South African Bureau Of State Security Apartheid government Anti-communist organisations in South Africa Secret police Defunct organisations based in South Africa Organisations associated with apartheid Defunct South African intelligence agencies Defunct law enforcement agencies of South Africa 1969 establishments in South Africa 1980 disestablishments in South Africa