Former apartheid spy Vanessa Brereton has apologised to the anti-apartheid activists she betrayed during her time as agent RS452, saying she does not deserve or expect forgiveness.
Speaking to Special Assignment’s Annelise Burgess on Tuesday night, the former Eastern Cape human rights lawyer said she was ”spell bound” by her lover — senior security policeman Carl Edwards — who recruited her into the secret police in the 1980s.
She also described herself as having had low self esteem — on account of a birth defect — which led to her gnawing need for attention, power and approval.
”I was born with a dislocated hip joint… my one leg was shorter than the other which led to my very low self-esteem… South African society is very sexist and I felt not that desirable… I guess I wanted people to take notice of me.
”He (Carl) reinforced my anti-Communist beliefs, made me feel special. I felt I was doing something important for my country,” Brereton said.
Describing herself as having lived in a ”parallel universe” and still struggling with her double life today, Brereton admitted she was most likely responsible for the detention without trial of activist Janet Cherry of the Port Elizabeth Crisis Information Centre.
”I think information I supplied led to Cherry’s third detention… I betrayed Cherry the most, and also Valli Moosa and Murphy Morobe. I would like to say I apologise for the hurt I’ve caused them. I don’t have the right to ask for their forgiveness,” Brereton said.
She however insisted she believed in what she was doing at the time and that her work as a human rights lawyer, which she says led to the acquittal of torture victims, was genuine and earnest.
Her work at the time was in fact the perfect cover for her role as a spy. Cherry and other former activists she betrayed said they never suspected her. Cherry said she was unaware until she saw the interview with Brereton that information Brereton supplied that led to her third detention.
As for Brereton, she said it took her up until the late 1980s to realise the security police she was helping were ”brutal”.
”I once asked Carl about detainees being tortured. He said they never tortured detainees and that it was all a Communist conspiracy. I believed him although beneath the surface I suppose I knew it couldn’t possibly be true.
”In 1989 at the time of the Motherwell bombings I realised the security police were extremely ruthless, that they felt nothing even for their supporters. I became scared for my safety and I was tired of being a spy, its a lonely job.
”(But) in a way I felt there was no escape, I felt I had to have a reason for leaving. After the ANC was unbanned in the early 1990s, I realised things were changing and that was when I saw there was a way out for me and I took it,” she said.
Brereton said she decided to speak out now because she felt she could not sit back and watch an innocent man — National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka — be blamed for being agent RS452. She also said she was tired of bearing her burden.
Ngcuka has been accused of being an apartheid era spy. Prior to Brereton’s confession, he was linked to code name RS542 by Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik, who have since withdrawn those specific allegations but are maintaining their spy claims in general.
The Hefer commission, currently running in Bloemfontein, has been tasked by President Thabo Mbeki to investigate the allegations against Ngcuka and Justice Minister Penuell Maduna. – Sapa