Stefaans Brummer
A SHADOWY company that was a nerve centre for security=20 police dirty tricks planning in the Witwatersrand since=20 late 1990 still exists as a police front.
The company, which operated under the cover names=20 Lamont Market Research and LM Research, shed its more=20 notorious “Stratcom” component in late 1991 or early=20 1992, but continued operating under cover from Randburg=20 until about two months ago, when it moved to the East=20
Stratcom — an acronym for “strategic communication” –=20 was part of a nationwide network in most or all state=20 departments, aimed at “countering the revolutionary=20 threat” through propaganda and dirty tricks.
Former security police Stratcom operative Paul Erasmus=20 revealed this week Lamont was set up at premises in=20 Kent Avenue in Ferndale, Randburg, in November or=20 December 1990 as a joint nerve centre for the elite=20 intelligence and Stratcom units of Witwatersrand=20 security police.
A draft founding document for Lamont given to the Mail=20 & Guardian by Erasmus outlines the strategy to maintain=20 a cover for the company’s real activities. “The cover=20 name Lamont Market Research should be used with all=20 private people who are not aware of a member’s SAP=20 status,” the document states.
The document says that the company would fob off=20 inquiries by saying it did market research for foreign=20 companies wanting to invest in South Africa in=20 contravention of sanctions. No details about these=20 “clients” would be given out “as they are very=20 sensitive about their status in the RSA”.
Erasmus said a typical day would start with “a meeting=20 where we’d discuss information gleaned from=20 intelligence sources, including agents, bugging=20 devices, telephone taps, postal intercepts, and so on”.
Information would be exchanged between the Stratcom and=20 intelligence operatives, and with Witwatersrand=20 security police headquarters at John Vorster Square and=20 security police overall command in Pretoria. “We’d=20 spend the rest of the day planning dirty tricks.”
Erasmus said the unit’s stratcom operatives were headed=20 up by then-Major Gerhard Bruwer, while a Major Deon=20 Greyling headed the intelligence operatives. Lamont=20 fell under the overall command of Colonel Zirk Gous,=20 then Witwatersrand security police head of=20 intelligence. Gous is now a brigadier heading police=20 community relations in the Witwatersrand.
Gous, in his capacity as liaison head, this week denied=20 Bruwer had spent more than two months with Lamont=20 before the police officially disbanded its Stratcom=20 units at the end of 1991 or early 1992, or that the=20 Stratcom unit had operated from Lamont for longer than=20 Bruwer’s reign there. Erasmus disputed this, saying=20 Bruwer had been stationed there for the entire period=20 from late 1990 at least until August 1991 when he=20 (Erasmus) was transferred.
Bruwer, who left the police on 31 January this year=20 with the rank of colonel “on the grounds of findings of=20 a medical board”, appeared in court in February and May=20 this year on charges relating to the illegal possession=20 of an AK47 rifle and a R6 000 reward that had been=20 claimed from police as reward for “finding” the rifle.=20 The charges were withdrawn.
Gous confirmed that “other allegations against ex- Colonel Bruwer and investigated by the anti-corruption=20 unit. In the investigation, use was made of the=20 expertise of private auditors. The allegations were=20 completely unfounded.”
The allegations against Bruwer are believed to relate=20 to about R50 000 which would have been claimed on=20 behalf of fictitious informers, and large sums from=20 police funds spent on buying several hundred grams of=20 cocaine from a Nigerian drug dealer in a “sting”=20 operation that led to no arrest. Bruwer is known as a=20 close associate of Eugene de Kock, the former head of=20 the Vlakplaas security police unit who is now on trial=20 on more than 100 charges including multiple murder and=20
A well-placed police source said Lamont was taken over=20 by the police Organised Crime Unit’s intelligence=20 section about the time the stratcom unit was disbanded,=20 and that Bruwer served a spell there as second-in-
Gous denied there had been any association between=20 Lamont and the Organised Crime Unit, saying Lamont was,=20 and still is, operated by the specialist intelligence=20 unit of the police Crime Intelligence Service,=20 successor to the security police.
Other employees said Lamont suddenly vacated their=20 premises one night about two months ago. They are=20 understood from a police source to have moved to new=20 premises on the far East Rand, and probably use a range=20 of cover names.