Former spymaster Niel Barnard has played a key backroom role in the current DA turmoil
Marianne Merten
Dr Niel Barnard said it would be conceited to call himself a super-spy and insisted in a rare interview in 1992 that he was just a manager. Nine years later as Western Cape director general he is regarded a super-administrator at the heart of provincial government, and has played a key behind-the-scenes role in the intrigue surrounding the Democratic Alliance split.
Perhaps Barnard’s belief that knowledge is power, intelligence work “an intellectual game of chess” and operatives nondescript is central to his successful transformation over 25 years from cum laude political scientist at the University of the Orange Free State in the late 1970s; to spymaster heading the National Intelligence Service (NIS) from 1980; into the sphere of constitutional affairs during 1992; and finally government administration, first at national and since 1996 provincial level. Trusted in the inner circles of the Nat establishment, Barnard was and is said still to be a strategic kingmaker.
It is anyone’s guess what the man nicknamed “Die Doktor” is making of the New National Party move to work with the African National Congress, the target of his spies not too long ago. But few doubt he was always a few steps ahead in the bizarre political flick-flacks of the past two weeks.
Less than 24 hours before Western Cape Premier Gerald Morkel openly mutinied to back the Democratic Alliance, Barnard met the premier, one fiercely loyal MEC and another official, claim several within the seat of provincial power.
Speculation over what was discussed in Barnard’s office “after 5pm” has given rise to claims he is mobilising private sector support for Morkel, is providing strategic direction to stabilise the political soap opera, and is reaching out to KwaZulu-Natal to promote closer cooperation between the two non-ANC provinces.
It is such mastery of backroom manoeuvring by Barnard that clandestinely brought together for tea at Tuynhuis then-president PW Botha and prisoner Nelson Mandela in July 1989 in the presence of a select few, himself included.
Barnard has not quite shaken his reputation as spymaster and power behind the throne. But his contract as Western Cape director general was recently renewed for another five years because “he is doing a good job”. A couple of private sector-sponsored management awards are among the plethora of medals for distinguished, outstanding and faithful service and The Order of the Star of South Africa (non-military, class one, gold).
Barnard is central to the provincial administration as secretary to the Cabinet and head of the Provincial Administration Department within the premier’s office. He chairs provincial coordinating structures, including heads of department meetings.
During the spate of bombings in Cape Town between 1998 and 2000, he chaired regular meetings of police, army, intelligence and government officials under the multi-agency development action mechanism.
Until public service laws changed in early 1999 Barnard had the power to hire, fire, promote and transfer public servants. He is still reputed to have a say in who gets what job, as illustrated when questions were raised over the appointment of a senior transport manager a few months ago. The provincial management ranks remain dominated by white males, but last year the province approved Transformation 2000 to create 43 new equity posts at an estimated cost of R24-million.
Many remain uncomfortable about this quiet, deadpan man described as “neat, never a hair out of place”. Said one: “He won’t look you in the eye. He knows who you are when you come to visit, but you don’t know him.” Another says: “He’s one that wants to see a job done and if you do it to, do it well,” but also points out he sends shivers down the spine. “A snake,” was another’s impression.
Those in the provincial top echelons maintain Barnard has integrity, is supportive and clear-minded. When Morkel was appointed premier in 1999, Barnard offered to resign but remained welcome. And these days he shares stories of his hunting escapades in the Northern Cape and Namibia with provincial leaders.
Leaving the wide-ranging power ascribed to Barnard aside, he remains something of an enigma. A search under his name on the Western Cape government website fails to provide a hit; the site of his department is under construction.
The Mail & Guardian’s request to interview Barnard was turned down because “he considers his personal views on issues of politics or government administration not to be relevant or of public interest”.
Barnard has hit the headlines on rare occasions. One was when he received his marching orders along with a multimillion-rand payout, partly his 22-year civil service pension and the remainder of his contract after the National Party withdrew from the government of national unity in 1996. A source who knew Barnard then described him as “one of the more dangerous Nats” and a “difficult person”, who had no place in the ANC-dominated state.
Another instance was a few months later when trade unions protested against his appointment as director general by NP premier Hernus Kriel, an apartheid-era police minister.
He made the headlines again after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission questioned him during December 1997 about his role as NIS head and chairperson of the coordinating intelligence committee.
The commission in its 1998 interim report said: “The commission rejects the standpoint of former NIS director general Niel Barnard and other former NIS operatives who have denied involvement and/or knowledge that intelligence gathered was put to operation uses that included elimination The commission finds his viewpoint that the manner in which intelligence supplied by his agency was used, was not his concern, unacceptable.”
Among those the commission found “accountable for the extra-judicial killings of political opponents” was Barnard, alongside the state president, ministers of law and order, defence, foreign affairs and heads of the South African Defence Force, police, security branch, special forces and the Civil Cooperation Bureau.
Barnard filed legal papers to review the finding, but never followed through after the commission opposed the challenge. But he pursued to the end his defamation claim against Western Cape ANC leader Ebrahim Rasool, despite the latter’s apologies for linking Barnard to a casino licence bribery scam. The matter was settled only recently.
Born Lukas Daniel, Barnard long ago dismissed the romanticism of James Bond-type spies. What really mattered was sheer dedication to country and ideological conviction. Successful agents were “individuals who have mastered the art of acting and operating inconspicuously” and able to rely on little else but their ideological convictions, according to his 1983 CR Swart lecture at his alma mater, the University of the Orange Free State.
No photo of him has ever appeared in the Who’s Who of Southern Africa.
Perhaps it was his secretive nature and skill at pulling strings that enabled this Namibian-born father of three sons to adjust to the new political dispensation.