/ 12 June 2005

Zimbabwe spy saga lands in court

An alleged South African spy nabbed in Zimbabwe in December did not want to travel to the country because he feared arrest, newspapers reported on Sunday.

The man was given no choice but to go, and senior South African Secret Service (SASS) member George Madikiza insisted on the mission, according to papers filed in the Pretoria High Court.

The allegations have been made by Amanda Jeanne van der Merwe, an SASS employee who says she was sacked by Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils after she tried to tell him that the spy had been arrested.

She is appealing her dismissal.

Van der Merwe, who worked as a secretary at Musanda, the spy headquarters near Pretoria, said she was a friend of the arrested man, Aubrey Welken, and his wife Elmarie.

He was arrested by Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives at Victoria Falls in December.

Van der Merwe suspected that Kasrils was unaware of Welken’s arrest, although his wife had been assured the matter was being dealt with at the highest level.

According to the Sunday Times and Rapport newspapers, Van der Merwe decided to inform Kasrils herself.

She called Kasril’s spokesperson Lorna Daniels, who said Kasrils could not be contacted because he was on holiday in the Maldives.

Van der Merwe maintains Kasrils cancelled his holiday as a result of her call.

She also believes Kasrils recalled SASS director-general Hilton Dennis from leave to go to Harare and negotiate Welken’s release.

A day after the call, Van der Merwe was suspended, according to Rapport.

In a disciplinary hearing, she was found guilty of passing on information over an unsafe telephone line to an unauthorised person.

She was fired at the end of January.

Welken, who has been in a Harare jail for six months, was reportedly trying to recruit the head of counter-intelligence at the CIO.

The two men had apparently made arrangements to meet in Livingstone, Zambia, but the CIO officer asked to meet at Victoria Falls instead. It was reportedly a trap. – Sapa