peace’
Stefaans Brmmer
A Johannesburg-based “arms dealer” and South Africa’s top spy have locked horns in a court contest involving claims that the dealer is a threat to world peace and confirmation that South African intelligence collaborates with the United States CIA.
Affidavits lodged by both sides pending a Pretoria High Court hearing reveal details of a protracted struggle between South Africa’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA), led by its new Director General, Vusi Mavimbela, and German citizen Rudolph Wollenhaupt, who has lived in Johannesburg since 1994.
Wollenhaupt, often accused of unauthorised arms sales, last October served court papers on Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi in a bid to stay in the country. This followed a home affairs refusal – prompted by the NIA – to renew Wollenhaupt’s work permit and a subsequent order by Buthelezi declaring Wollenhaupt an “undesirable inhabitant or visitor”.
When deal-maker Wollenhaupt first arrived in Johannesburg six years ago, he set about building top-level relationships and a small business empire throughout Southern and Central Africa. He was close to African leaders and, closer to home, he liked to drop names including that of Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
But persistent reports linking him to regional destabilisation took their toll. Wollenhaupt has denied ever dealing in arms, claiming his partners in the security company touted military deals behind his back.
Wollenhaupt wants to force the Department of Home Affairs to provide him with copies of documents, including secret NIA reports, on which the minister and his department based their decisions. He argues the constitutional right to access state information entitles him to the documents.
Wollenhaupt also claims in his affidavit the NIA has relied on information from biased sources. He says he “has reason to believe” that Sharon Killeen, his former girlfriend and business partner, is one of the NIA’s sources on him. He claims she has waged a vendetta against him, including numerous criminal charges she pressed against him. Only one assault charge reached court and he was acquitted. During the assault trial last year Killeen admitted she worked for one of “several agencies” investigating Wollenhaupt, and also admitted her role in what on the face of it appears to be an intelligence agency’s attempt to set him up.
In a responding affidavit, home affairs Deputy Director Andr Goosen claims Wollenhaupt “is not a person of a good character, nor is he a desirable inhabitant”.