TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 1

Subsection 20

Stratcom and Intelligence Johannesburg

209 . Intelligence Johannesburg (IJ) was a unit at John Vorster Square whose functions included routine intelligence tasks such as surveillance and recruitment, unlawful tapping of telephones and interception of mail. IJ was also involved in a number of activities connected to Stratcom operations.

210. The Amnesty Committee received an application from Lieutenant Michael Bellingan [AM2880/96], who was attached to IJ between 1984 and 1986. Two other applications regarding Stratcom operations were received from members of the Witwatersrand Security Branch, Paul Francis Erasmus [AM3690/96] and Gary Leon Pollock [AM2538/96]. All three applicants applied for a range of unlawful operations, broadly classified as disinformation, propaganda and ‘dirty tricks ’ .

211. Stratcom (Strategic communication) was a form of psychological warfare waged by both conventional and unconventional means. Its earlier activities involved random acts of intimidation such as the vandalising of property, the making of threatening phone calls and so on. Later it involved actions such as the unlawful establishing of arms caches in an attempt to establish the credibility of Security Branch agents or to provide a pretext for actions such as the SADF raid into Botswana in 1985.

212. From 1984, following the appointment of Brigadier Gerrit Erasmus as head of the Security Branch, Stratcom actions became less random and more co-ordinated . This shift coincided with the formal adoption of Stratcom as state policy in 1984 and the establishment of a sub-committee Tak Strategiese Kommunikasie (TSK – Strategic Communications Branch) as part of the Secretariat of the State Security Council, with representatives from the Security Branch, Military Intelligence and the NIS.

213. Former Minister of Law and Order Adriaan Vlok testified that Stratcom was an official policy of the government and conceded that it was engaged in unlawful actions. An example of a Stratcom action, he told the Amnesty Committee, might include spreading disinformation about an individual in order to cause people to suspect him of being an agent or even attack him.⁷⁷

214. Applicants Erasmus and Bellingan testified that there were two kinds of Stratcom, loosely referred to as ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ Stratcom. Propaganda and disinformation made up the ‘soft’ side of Stratcom while ‘hard’ Stratcom referred to ‘active measures’. Mr Bellingan cited the examples of the bombings of Cosatu House and Khotso House and the ‘Cry Freedom’ incident. He said that the use of ‘hard’ Stratcom came about as a consequence of intensifying resistance , which led to the adoption of the strategy of counter- revolutionary warfare .

215. The bulk of the incidents for which the applicants sought amnesty fell broadly within the range of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ actions. They included: graffiti, fake pamphlets, pouring paint remover over vehicles, disrupting protest gatherings though the use of stink bombs or teargas, theft, threatening phone calls, blackmail, framing, assault, slashing of car tyres, bricks through windows, loosening wheel nuts and bolts of vehicles, firing shots at houses, and arson and petrol bomb attacks on vehicles, homes and buildings.

216. Erasmus, Bellingan and Pollock all testified that one of the aims and strategies of Stratcom was to sow division among ‘the enemy’. According to Bellingan, intelligence reports were used to expose ideological rifts in organisations and then find ways to exploit the differences. The effect would be to ‘divert their time and effort and resources away from us and as far as possible, against each other’.

217. Several of the incidents for which applicant Pollock sought amnesty fall into this category. He testified that the strategy of the Alexandra Security Branch in the early 1990s was to increase tensions between the IFP and those Alexandra residents perceived to be ANC supporters. Incidents included driving through Alexandra at night firing randomly, and furnishing the names of ANC members to the IFP.

West Rand Security Branch

218. The divisional headquarters of the West Rand Security Branch was based at Krugersdorp, with branches at Roodepoort and Ve reeniging. Five members of the Branch applied for amnesty for six incidents. These include one abduction (which ended in a killing); three attempted killings; the establishment of an arms cache used as a pretext for a raid on Botswana in which three persons were killed, and two acts of sabotage (see above).

219. Amnesty was granted to all but one of the five.

East Rand Security Branch

220. The East Rand Security Branch was based in Springs, with branches in Benoni and Germiston. Amnesty applications for two incidents were received from five applicants, including both divisional commanders. The incidents involved eight killings and at least seven attempted killings (all in Operation Zero Zero) and an attack on the home of a political activist. All applicants were granted amnesty.