A former security policeman opens his bag of dirty=20 tricks. Eddie Koch and Stefaans Brummer report
THE State Security Council under former President FW de=20 Klerk created a four-year plan to undermine and weaken=20 the ANC and its allies in the build-up to the 1994=20
Details of the extensive dirty tricks plan, planned to=20 run from 1990 to 1994, have been revealed by a former=20 policeman deeply involved in it, Warrant Officer Paul=20
Erasmus’ evidence, including information he has given=20 to the Goldstone Commission, would have a major impact=20 on the Government of National Unity, since it reflects=20 on De Klerk’s conduct during negotiations.
Erasmus worked for the Witwaters-rand branch of=20 Stratcom, the State Security Council arm which=20 specialised in intelligence gathering and dirty tricks.=20 He was personally involved in tapping the phones of and=20 recruiting sources in the ANC as late as October 1992.
Although Stratcom was officially disbanded after the=20 Mail & Guardian expose of the Inkathagate scandal in=20 1991, most of the front companies had been made self- sufficient and were allowed to continue independently.=20 They ceased getting police money, but were allowed to=20 keep their personnel, resources and premises.
No orders went out to stop their activities, merely to=20 break official contact with them –and some of them=20 continued operating until as recently as this year.
Erasmus was a long-standing security policeman who was=20 given special Stratcom training in August 1990, six=20 months after the unbanning of the ANC and the release=20 of Nelson Mandela. On the course, they were told they=20 had four years before the first democratic election in=20 which to make sure the ANC was “reduced to just another=20 political party”.
“Stratcom had to consider identified target areas=20 within the ANC, for example finances, and actions had=20 to be taken to highlight the shortcomings and failures=20 of the organisation with the ultimate aim of forcing=20 Mandela to back down at the negotiating table.”
There were, according to Erasmus, “soft” Stratcom=20 activities — projects with defined and “legal” aims –=20 and “hard” activities, “tactics such as murder,=20 assassination, sabotage, breaking and entering, theft,=20 planting of evidence and blackmail, subversion and a=20 host of other activities in the ‘national interest'”.
Stratcom answered to the State Security Council, on=20 which De Klerk and other NP leaders, such as Pik Botha,=20 Roelf Meyer, Adriaan Vlok and Hernus Kriel, all sat. In=20 addition, Stratcom projects in areas such as education=20 had to be approved by the relevant minister.
Erasmus has provided details of a number of projects=20 aimed at the ANC, its women’s and youth leagues,=20 individuals within them such as Winnie Mandela and=20 Peter Mokaba, and the SA Communist Party. These=20
* Project Romulus, “covert action to put pressure on=20 the ANC/SACP”.
* Operation Gordian, “to minimise the effectiveness of=20 the ANC Youth League and Sayco”.
* Operation Jackal, “neutralising the ideological=20 influence of radical organisations … in secondary and=20 tertiary institutions”. The flagships of this project=20 were the Students Moderate Alliance and the Afrikaans=20 National Student Federation, set up to counter the=20 influence of Nusas.
* Operation Olympia, to recruit high school kids as a=20 way of dealing with the increasing difficulty they had=20 in finding sources.=20
* Operation Ram, including a letter writing project,=20 aimed at getting Stratkom views into the media.
* Operation Einstein, aimed at coloured education=20
* Project Omega, aimed at labour and under which the=20 IFP union, Uwusa, was founded.
* Project Wigwam, the biggest of all, aimed at=20 countering and neutralising the ANC, PAC, SACP, Cosatu=20 as well as the far-rightwing.
Erasmus was involved in these projects, working from=20 the offices of a front company in Randburg, until late=20 1991, when he transferred to the Southern Cape. There=20 he worked for the Central Intelligence Services, which=20 he says merely took over the work of the disbanded=20 security police. Erasmus’ documents reveal extensive=20 surveillance, phone tapping, mail interception and the=20 recruitment of sources in the ANC in the area as late=20 as October 1992.
Erasmus’ Stratcom work also stretched overseas. A major=20 part of it was to spread anti-ANC propaganda in=20 countries being visited by Mandela in a bid to damage=20 his chances of raising money for his party. This was=20 done in Britain, the United States and Japan, mostly by=20 feeding anti-ANC information to the media and friendly=20
Erasmus worked extensively with a Scottish member of=20 the Conservative Party’s rightwing Monday Club, Harvey=20 Ward, to feed information to MP’s and other prominent=20 British figures. Some of these were aware of the origin=20 of the information.
He also worked with an American foundation, the Short=20 Forum, to counter the ANC in the United States.
Brigadier Zirk Gous, now head of police community=20 relations in the Witwatersrand, but named by Erasmus as=20 head of Stratcom intelligence, yesterday said Stratcom=20 was “a structured operation for a limited time period=20 1990-1992” and was then formally disbanded.
But Stratcom documents make it clear that it was formed=20 in 1984 and Erasmus’ evidence suggests that some of its=20 work continued informally after 1992.
Erasmus left the police force in 1993, angry and=20 disillusioned, he and his family “having been=20 victimised by a corrupt commanding officer”. “I became=20 one of the first policemen to sue the minister for the=20 loss of my career. As a result, I became the target of=20 dirty tricks, disinformation and received information=20 that previous colleagues were going to kill me, my wife=20 and children.
“The commissioner, General Johan van der Merwe,=20 personally ordered a massive investigation into my=20 whole career, fearing, I believe, that I would reveal=20 covert operations. I am prepared to accept=20 responsibility for deeds that I carried out in the=20 total onslaught era and after 1990, but I find it=20 impossible to accept that my wife and innocent children=20 should suffer in actions which were to be implemented=20 against me. It was only when this vicious system turned=20 on me when I realised what I had been doing to the=20 white left for all those years.
“I don’t regad myself as another Dirk Coetzee or a=20 traitor. However, I believe that unless the evils of=20 the past are exposed, they may be perpetuated in the=20 future,” Erasmus said.
He later gave evidence to the Goldstone Commission,=20 where he was put on a witness protection programme and=20 flown overseas for his safety. He was codenamed Q4, one=20 of the key witnesses in Judge Richard Goldstone’s=20 expose of third force activities.
Erasmus’ wife, however, is on record as being sharply=20 critical of their treatment by the Goldstone=20