TRC Final Report

Volume 2

Chapter 3

Subsection 67

■ SOUTH AFRICAN DEFENCE FORCE (SADF)

30 The Union Defence Force (UDF) was established in 1912. In 1957, a new Defence Act was passed which changed its name to the South African Defence Force. At that stage the SADF consisted of three arms of service - the Army, Navy and the Air-Force. In 1979, a fourth arm, the South African Medical Service (SAMS), was added.

31 The following are some of the components of the SADF that were regarded as significant to the mandate of the Commission:

The Military Intelligence Division (MID)

32 The Military Intelligence Division (MID) resided under one of the five staff components of the SADF (personnel, intelligence, operational, logistics, planning and finance). The staff division was run by the Chief of Staff Intelligence (CSI) who was directly responsible to the Chief of the SADF (CSADF).

33 In the pre-total strategy period, the MID was relatively small and said to have a staff of less than 100 in the mid-1970s. However, from the late 1970s it underwent significant expansion and its staff complement is said to have stood at an estimated few thousand by the latter 1980s. It had the capacity to recruit personnel from sectors outside the military, including the civilian as well as police and intelligence. With expansion, also went a process of re-organisation. A structural distinction was effected between strategic and tactical intelligence The latter function was organised into parallel staff divisions within each Arm of Service of the SADF. These were:

• GS2 - Chief of Staff Army Intelligence - colloquially referred to in the intelligence world as 'Blennie';
• AS2 - Chief of Staff Air Force Intelligence;
• NS2 - Chief of Staff Naval Intelligence;
• MS2 - Chief of Staff Medical Intelligence.

34 Although the functions of these directorates were co-ordinated by CSI , some developed a degree of institutional autonomy, especially GS2 in regard to operations in Angola and Namibia, and internally after the decision to deploy the SADF in townships.

35 Responsibility for strategic intelligence was given to the MID which also underwent processes of expansion and re-organisation. By the mid-1980s, MID was organised into three major sub-divisions - military intelligence, counter-intelligence and intelligence operations - and several directorates, one of which was the Directorate of Covert Collection (DCC).

36 An Intelligence Staff Council was responsible for the co-ordination of policy and comprised: CSI (Chair); Chiefs of Staff Army, Air Force, Navy and Medical Intelligence; Chief Directors of Military Intelligence, Counter-Intelligence and Intelligence Operations and the Director of DCC.

37 The post of CSI became one of the most powerful with, under PW Botha, its incumbents being Lt-Gen. P. W. van der Westhuizen (1978-85), Vice-Admiral Dries Putter (1985-89), and Lt-Gen. R 'Witkop' Badenhorst (1989-91). Following Badenhorst, Lt Genl CJ ‘Joffel’ van der Westhuizen was CSI. Lt-Gen. PW van der Westhuizen, after his term as CSI, served as secretary of the SSC until well into 1988.