South African Bureau of State Security

The South African Bureau of State Security ( BOSS; German as: " South African Bureau of State Security " ) was a South African secret service during the apartheid era. It was founded in 1969 on a statutory basis, with the Public Service Amendment Act. His extensive task assignment received the authority to the Security Intelligence and State Security Council Act (Act No. 64/1972 ), which was clarified in 1978 with the Bureau of State Security Act (Act No. 104/1978 ) on. It is created from the BOSS, the Department of National Security.

With the establishment and management on behalf of Prime Minister Balthazar Johannes Vorster was the head of the Security Department of the South African Police, Hendrik van den Bergh, commissioned.

Work and powers

The affected areas of the BOSS were both in South Africa itself as well as abroad. He was responsible both for espionage and for the fight against the opposition. This included the murder of opponents of apartheid. The official announcement establishing this service in the direct responsibility of the Prime Minister appeared on 16 May 1969 the Government Gazette. Therein whose duties were described as follows:

• " ( 1) to investigate everything that the state security concerns to weigh and evaluate the information obtained and, if necessary, to inform the Government and advise, as well as the interested ministries and other relevant authorities;
• ( 2) to perform other functions and responsibilities as may be determined from case to case. "

On June 4, 1969, the Government published a supplement to the Official Secrets Act by section 10, after which a release of any security matter with a fine of up to 1,500 margin, with imprisonment up to 7 years or with both penalties could be proved. As a security matter every issue was defined, which could be related with the security of the country and was being treated by the South African Bureau of State Security. In section 29 of the Prime Minister, an official appointed by him, officials or any minister was authorized to prevent the taking of evidence and use of documents in court proceedings or prohibit, if in their opinion " are harmful to the interests of the state or public security. "

General van den Bergh was in April 1968 - which was initially kept secret - along with a high security officials in London, to learn about the African National Congress and its thereat exile headquarters. Later he negotiated in Lisbon with Portuguese and Rhodesian police officials to hold talks on preparation of measures to combat the resistance movements in southern Africa with them.

In 1980 the service was after a scandal, in which it came to buying the newspaper The Citizen, replaced by the National Intelligence Service, whose leadership Luke Barnard took over.

Perception in the international public

• Der Spiegel called the BOSS 1971 in an article entitled " South Africa's Big Brother "
• Nelson Mandela wrote in his memoirs, an agent of BOSS 1969 've tried to entice him to flee from Robben Iceland. The flight should apparently be able to then murder him on the mainland at a bogus arrest.
• Jean Ziegler wrote in the Swiss weekly magazine The World Week, the BOSS have tried on several occasions the President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe to murder because of his support for the African National Congress.
• In the 1970s, according to research by the mirror BOSS agents in the UK incriminating material against South - critical politician ( Labour and Liberal Party ) have collected. Among other things, it was embroiled in accusations of an alleged homosexual affair of the Liberal leaders Jeremy Thorpe.