WEDNESDAY, 5.30PM
A FORMER police spy, John Horak, has claimed more than half a million rand from the government and the Sanlam insurance company for failing to pay his disability benefits. But his court bid today was postponed because his state insurance policy was so secret that he was never told the details himself.
Horak worked as a journalists on various English-language newspapers including the Rand Daily Mail, The Star, and the Sunday Times for 27 years, during which time he spied on his colleagues on behalf of the security police.
In 1991, with the rank of major in the police force, he defected to the ANC, joining its intelligence wing. When the ANC intelligence staff were integrated into the National Intelligence Service in 1995, he was appointed a deputy divisional head.
One of his conditions of service, was that he would be paid out five times his annual salary — or R599 610 — in the event of his being declared medically unfit. But the rules of the scheme were never revealed to him because they were classifed as “strictly confidential” and he had signed an agreement to maintain secrecy.
Lawyers representing the government, and Sanlam, said they did not have to dislose details of Horak’s assurance policy, because they were not necessary to their case and they were not obliged to help Horak prove his case.
Mr Justice MC de Klerk, said the government was obliged to reveal all relevant documents, and ordered the goverment to pay all wasted costs due to the postponement of the case.