Journalists were given a surprise on Wednesday when Western Cape premier Peter Marais took them on a tour of the high-security bunker where he claimed ”Gerald Morkel and Niel Barnard tried to plan my downfall.”
The bunker was set up under the previous Democratic Alliance administration.
He pointed out the spot on the wall where the controversial WatchDog, a device that can both detect bugging devices and monitor conversations, had been mounted.
The device was confiscated by the National Intelligence Agency in March this year after a sweep of the provincial legislature building.
The visit came immediately after Marais had addressed a media briefing on the housing shortage in the Western Cape.
Out of the blue Marais said: ”I will show you the strongroom where Gerald Morkel and Niel Barnard tried to plan my downfall. I will show you the ‘hotdog’,” he said, jokingly referring to the WatchDog.
Four holes were visible in the strongroom showing where the WatchDog had been mounted on the wall at head height. Also visible lower down were cables which ran to another room.
Marais showed the media a peephole in a steel door which could not be opened from the outside through which people inside the strongroom had a view of the corridor. A second door only allowed access inside the strongroom.
The premier then showed a strongroom within a strongroom.
Those inside the strongroom had a view of the director-general’s office with its barred windows.
Journalists were then taken through the director-general’s office where, if the need arose, one could make a hasty exit by knocking off two bolts which allowed the steel bars to fall away.
In this way a person could enter the strongroom or escape from the building. – Sapa