Stefaans Brummer
In the run-up to last year’s elections, security police=20 planned a new ‘moderate’ political party to counter=20 support for the ANC, reports Stefaans BrUmmer
ADVANCED secret plans by the security police to=20 introduce a new, anti-ANC “moderate” party to the=20 political spectrum were scuttled only by the mid-1991=20 Inkathagate debacle, former police operative Paul=20 Erasmus has disclosed.
He said the party, which would have been helped to its=20 feet by Dr Harvey Ward, a former director-general of=20 the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation with wide=20 international political contacts, was intended for=20 voters who were not “at home” with the National Party,=20 but it would “secretly” co-operate with the NP in=20
Offices had already been rented in the Johannesburg=20 suburb of Northcliff, a permanent staffer appointed, a=20 constitution drafted — and reconnaissance done on a=20 building housing anti-apartheid bodies where office=20 equipment would have been stolen — when The Weekly=20 Mail’s revelations in July 1991 of government aid to=20 Inkatha stopped similar projects in their tracks.
Erasmus said Ward was brought from Britain, where he=20 had been running an anti-communist publishing house,=20 and that a salary as registered security police=20 “source” of R6 000 or R7 000, and benefits, including a=20 car and expense account for Ward, had already been=20
Erasmus had to tell Ward after his arrival in South=20 Africa that the project had been stopped. Ward, who=20 suffered large losses because he gave up his business=20 in Britain, died in South Africa about two months ago.
The scuttling of the project can be traced directly=20 back to a public statement of July 30,1991 — shortly=20 after the Inkathagate revelations — in which then- President FW de Klerk said that “all special secret=20 projects which could have been considered to constitute=20 support for political parties or organisations have now=20 been cancelled, subject to the speedy conclusion of=20 some contractual obligations”.
Erasmus said the project had been conceptualised by=20 Witwatersrand security police, approved by security=20 police headquarters in Pretoria and subsequently by the=20 State Security Council, which was headed by De Klerk.
With help from academics, “I wrote the constitution for=20 that political party — I, a warrant officer in the SAP=20 — and it looked very good.”
The party would have stood on a “traditional liberal”=20 platform, at a time when elements in the security=20 police were coming to see liberals like Alan Paton as=20 “not so bad” and useful in the anti-communist struggle.
Ward, who boasted wide contacts in European and=20 American political circles and was made an honorary=20 baron in Austria, but whom some regarded as a “right- wing crank”, would have “started the thing, but taken a=20 back seat as more people got involved”, Erasmus said.
Input was gained from academics, including a prominent=20 University of the Witwatersrand academic. Sources were=20 to “infiltrate” the South African Institute of Race=20 Relations to swing that body behind the party. Erasmus=20 has a copy of a police memo which shows he (Erasmus)=20 had claimed R400 SAIRR membership fee from police funds=20 on behalf of the source, codenamed JHB 1012.
Erasmus says he still has a bunch of keys to Portland=20 Place in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, where Beyers Naude=20 and anti-apartheid church bodies had their offices. He=20 says he and his commanding officer, Major Gerhard=20 Bruwer, had done a reconnaissance at the premises and=20 the plan was to bring in the Vlakplaas unit of Eugene=20 de Kock, now on trial for murder and corruption, to=20 steal computers and other office equipment for the=20
“It would just about have been a military operation to=20 empty the place,” said Erasmus.