Journey into the murky world of apartheid spies

OWN CORRESPONDENT

What motivated you to write the book?

Growing up, I was fascinated by spies – not the James Bond type of agent, but spies like Eli Cohen, the Mossad agent who spied on Syria, the Cambridge Spies, and the Red Orchestra – the anti-Nazi resistance movement. I become interested in South African spies by accident when I started to do research on “super spy” Craig Williamson. Williamson was a central figure in South African politics during the 1970s and 1980s but after democracy, disappeared from the public eye. He was a member of the special branch who had infiltrated the anti-apartheid student movement, and then carried on spying in Europe. He was unmasked in 1980, after almost a decade undercover, and then transformed from a spy into an assassin. He killed three people (that we know about). I wanted to know why he did what he did, and whether he had any remorse so I wrote the book Spy: Uncovering Craig Williamson, published in 2017. I then wondered about other South African spies who have also just disappeared. I decided to track them down. I wanted to explore issues of trust, betrayal, and repentance, and to see if forgiveness is possible. That’s how Betrayal: The Secret Lives of Apartheid Spies came about.

What kind of research did you do for this book?

I trawled through archives, court documents, newspaper clippings, and interviewed a wide range of people – spies, and the people they betrayed. Telling the story of each spy was a journey in itself. It took me to an underground cell of the South African Communist Party in the 1950s; to a flat in Johannesburg one evening in 1959 where Richard Goldstone and two of his colleagues “interrogated” the “pretty blonde spy” (the first student caught spying at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)); to a hotel room in New York where a crack team from the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) swooped on Simon’s Town dockyard commodore Dieter Gerhardt who had been a Russian spy for 20 years; to the resistance and repression of the Eastern Cape in the dark days of the 1980s; and to a history class at a top Cape Town high school in 2019 – where a popular teacher had been an apartheid spy. Ultimately, though, I went on my own journey, looking at South Africa’s past of victims and perpetrators. The culmination of the journey was the realisation that where there is remorse, there is hope of finding understanding, and with understanding comes healing and the possibility of forgiveness.

Having done the book on Craig Williamson, and now this one, you may well become associated with writing about spies. How do you feel about that?

I’m okay with being the “spy guy”. I think this book is more than just about spies – it’s about a particular slice of South Africa’s history that hasn’t been properly recorded.

The life of spies is one of pure betrayal of those you get close to. Have you ever experienced being on either side of this?

I’ve never been a spy (although if I had been, I probably wouldn’t admit it). When I was a student at Wits in the early 1990s, I joined the End Conscription Campaign (ECC), which had been infiltrated by spies (three of whom are profiled in Betrayal). There was a sense of paranoia, and one of the first things we were told was to be on the lookout for spies. A few of us were convinced that one of our members – Andre – was a special branch agent. We had planned a meeting where I, as the chair of the ECC branch on campus, would call on men to refuse to serve in the South African National Defence Force. Encouraging people to resist was a criminal offence. The night before the meeting, my phone rang. It was Andre, wanting to know when our meeting was taking place. I told him. As soon as I put the phone down, I went cold. I couldn’t recall having ever given him my phone number. I was convinced there would be a policeman at the meeting who would arrest me as soon as I called on people to defy their call-up. However, no policeman rushed up to me to lead me away in handcuffs, and I still have no idea if Andre was a spy. He probably wasn’t.

What does betrayal, and living a lie mean to you?

Betrayal is one of the most painful and damaging experiences we can endure, and it’s at the very heart of espionage. Most of the spies I write about infiltrated a group of people, socialised with them, had romantic relationships, and formed “genuine” friendships. (I was told that one spy was the best man at the wedding of someone he was spying on), but all the time, they were deceiving them.

What do you think it takes to become a spy?

It takes someone who is capable of being duplicitous, and is able to compartmentalise. Spies have to be able to live the role so they need to be good actors. They have to have an excellent memory to remember the lies they have told so that they don’t get caught out, and they need to be manipulative. People have different motives for becoming spies. One of the questions I explore is what motivated the people I profiled to spy. The acronym MICE – money, ideology, coercion, and ego – is used to explain their motives. There are complex reasons why people spy, but for many of the people I profiled, becoming a spy satisfied their desire to belong. Being a spy made them feel powerful. They enjoyed the secret life, and being able to pull strings. One or two were reluctant spies. For example, Roland Hunter, who did his national service in military intelligence, became a spy for the African National Congress because he opposed apartheid, and happened to be at the right place at the right time (or, perhaps, the wrong place at the wrong time).

Which spy fascinates you the most and why?

Two fascinated me. First, Gerhardt, who was very senior in the South African Navy, and was spying for Russia. A lot of the other spies bumbled along, and were opportunistic, but Gerhardt was a professional spy. He was considered one of the most important spies of the Cold War – in the league of Kim Philby, the British double agent who also spied for Russia. When Gerhardt was finally arrested, it emerged that he had given Moscow between 400 000 and 500 000 pages of documents containing “the deepest secrets of South Africa, Israel, and NATO [the North Atlantic Treaty Organization]”. There’s still a lot of speculation about his motives, and looking into his history was fascinating. I was also very interested in Joy Harnden, who infiltrated the Black Sash (among other organisations). While the other spies I tracked down just wanted to forget the past and get on with their lives, I got the impression that she had genuinely grappled with her past. She seemed contrite and remorseful about what she had done.

What impact has this book had on your life and relationships?

I’ve learnt that trust is so important, and not to be taken lightly. The research has made me appreciate the people who are in my life because I know I can trust them.

How fortuitous it is that Jacob Zuma recently threatened to reveal more apartheid spies? What are your thoughts about this?

Zuma threatening to name names is merely a distraction. It’s a political sleight of hand so that people don’t look at his corruption. He has accused people he had included in his cabinet of being apartheid spies – it doesn’t ring true. Of course, the people he named all happen to be his political enemies. Accusing people of being spies is precisely what happened during apartheid – it creates a culture of paranoia, and a climate of fear. The problem with spy allegations is that they are usually impossible to prove one way or another.

What is it about spies – particularly from the apartheid era – you believe will fascinate your readers?

What motivated them to become spies in the first place. Some (perhaps most) were manipulated and taken advantage of, but they all chose to become spies. They were conscious of what they were doing. Most have tried to minimise their role, and just want to disappear. What is also interesting is the interviews with people who were betrayed – Toni Bernstein and Jo-Anne Richards were romantically involved with spies. For them, the betrayal was deeply personal. Decades later, most of the people who were betrayed still feel angry, hurt, and humiliated. They talk about the betrayal as if they are grieving a friend’s death. In a way, they are. The person they thought they knew is no longer there, and their sense of what’s real is shattered.

Going back into the dark days of apartheid is fascinating, but it can’t be easy. How did you wash it off at the end of the day to be a normal dad and husband?

I spoke to people who had been tortured and, with regards to Williamson, the family members of his victims, which was very upsetting – especially the murder of one of his victims, six-year-old Katryn Schoon. As a journalist, I’ve covered some terrible incidents, and have learnt to deal with the trauma – both my sisters and my wife are psychologists, and they look after my mental well-being.

Is there a difference between apartheid spies and other spies around the world and through the ages? If so, what makes apartheid spies unique?

There have always been spies (contrary to popular belief, espionage is actually the world’s oldest profession) and there will always be spies – no state can survive without espionage. I have no doubt that the current South African government has infiltrated a range of organisations. So, in that sense, apartheid spies were not unique. From an ideological point of view, though, there’s no moral equivalence between the apartheid spies and those who spied on the apartheid government for the simple reason that apartheid was a crime against humanity. It was an evil system.

You obviously did other work and had a life while writing this book. How did you manage it?

Yes, I tried to have a life. After picking the dozen spies I wanted to profile, I started doing research and conducting interviews, which was the best part of the process. When I had a cupboard full of notes, papers, and interview transcriptions, I realised it was time to start writing (the agonising part of the process). I work best in the morning when there are no pinging phones, so got up at 04:00 and, trying to ignore The Atlantic’s crossword puzzle, went to my shed and worked for a few hours. I sent chapters to my father, who gave me very valuable feedback, and my excellent publisher and outstanding editor helped to guide me.

What’s next?

There are two projects I want to work on. The first is a story about my daughter, Rachel, who had a very rare disease and a bone marrow transplant in 2017. I went from her isolation ward a few days after her transplant to the Spy: Uncovering Craig Williamson book launch. It’s been an incredibly tough journey, but her medical fairytale is a story of hope and miracles. The other project I’m interested in pursuing is about Jewish anti-apartheid activists, and the impact their involvement had on their families.

• ‘Betrayal’ is being launched on 20 August at Love Books in Melville at 18:00, where Ancer will be chatting to Gus Silber.