The Mole, a bizarre tracking device that was rejected by the British, is burrowing its way into South Africa
Mail & Guardian reporters
They did it in Star Trek, and now they think they can do it in downtown Johannesburg. A security and surveillance company based in Selby is planning to import a device from Norway, which, it claims, can track objects or people for up to 6 000km.
The company, Strategic Digital Technologies, is adamant that the device, “the Mole”, is set to revolutionise tracking and surveillance in South Africa, as the special bugs, planted on the quarry, are “passive” and emit no detectable signals.
Strategic Digital Technologies Group managing director Bruce de Kock says he hopes to sell the device to the government.
De Kock and his colleagues, most of whom have a military or intelligence background, will have to have a better sales pitch than their counterparts in the United Kingdom.
It appears that the makers of the mole approached police forces in Britain with the device. An investigation was then conducted by the British Home Office, which runs a unit providing technical back-up to the police. A Home Office representative said this week: “We made a judgement that it [the Mole] could not possibly work, and so did not proceed further.”
John Barnett of Scandec, the Norwegian company that is selling the device, this week e-mailed the Mail & Guardian an advertising leaflet which begins: “The Mole is a serious scientific breakthrough in modern physics. Its design and engineering was carefully approached to produce a simple unit that allows its operator the ability to search for and locate lost, missing and unseen objects unobtrusively from a distance.”
It continues, under the title “working principle”: “All matter contain [sic] positive charges. All living beings also carry positive charges. The comparator (locator) consists of an inductor, conductor and an oscillator combined into a simple hand held unit with an antennae, (not to be confused with a radio antenna). The locators ability to function is made possible when it is connected to a human body. Your body is electrical in nature (see physics) …”
It has not been an easy road for Strategic Digital Technologies. They first imported a mole from a Durban-based agent of Scandec, and then filed criminal charges against him when the machine did not meet with their satisfaction. Now they have taken over from the former South African importer, Hugh Turner, claiming that Scandec severed ties with him because he had failed to pay for equipment.
Turner, who charged Strategic Digital Technologies $150 000 for the device, was arrested and jailed this week. Strategic Digital Technologies’ legal adviser, Irwin Levine, who was struck off the roll of attorneys last year, laid the charges against Turner for misrepresenting the capabilities of the tracking device. De Kock says the device has now been shipped back to Norway for repairs and tuning.
But the battle over the Mole appears to be far from over. Turner’s lawyers say they want to hit back with a series of lawsuits, including charging Levine with pretending to be a lawyer when he sought to pay a visit to Turner in jail.
Durban lawyer Jenny Wild says Turner has instructed her to pursue criminal charges, including kidnapping, against members of the South African Police Service and members of a company called Strategic Recoveries a company associated with Strategic Digital Technologies.
Wild says De Kock claimed the companies he represented Strategic Recoveries and Strategic Recovery Holdings were front organisations for the National Intelligence Agency and South African Secret Service.
Turner’s release from police custody was secured after senior public prosecutor Adele Kirsten read the docket and decided that the fight over the dodgy bugging equipment was a civil matter and not one for the criminal courts. Kirsten could not be reached for comment.
Levine said he could not comment on the British claims about the Mole, but said he had seen a demonstration of the device and believes it works.
In addition to extolling the virtues of the tracking system, the Mole leaflets also talk of electronic sniffing system that can be used to “sniff out” anything from drugs, to explosives.
Scandec’s Barnett say he is also working on an adaptation that will enable the machine to track DNA. This, says De Kock, would be a major breakthrough in the surveillance world, enabling private detectives to track individuals by stealth if they obtain a sample of their DNA.
It is unclear whether the Mole is equipped to sniff out bullshit.