Special Hearings — Mandela United Football Club Hearings — 1997-11-24

PAUL FRANCIS ERASMUS: My name is Paul Francis Erasmus, I was a member of the South African Police from 1975 until 1993 when I was medically boarded for post traumatic stress.  I served as a field intelligence officer in the Security of the South African Police from 1977 until the 31st of May 1993 when my service was terminated.  From the time that I joined the Security Branch I was involved on various occasions in activities over a very wide sphere being conducted against the perceived enemies of the State.  These types of activities included harassment of suspects, the dissemination of information amongst the left wing community and many of these activities which could be described as dirty tricks.  In 1984 or thereabouts a formal Stratcom unit was created after a full cabinet and the State President had met together with senior politicians, department heads and members of the security forces.  A formal Stratcom Unit was then set up was then set up at Police Headquarters at Pretoria and over the following years I and members of the Security Branch participated in Stratcom activities, myself on an informal or ad hoc basis and during which time I also prepared graphic art work for the Stratcom unit.
 From 1985 to 1986 I participated in a major Stratcom type initiative after rumours in circulation at the time had indicated that Mrs Winnie Madikizela Mandela had a close association or friendship with Mr Chris Ball who was then MD of First National Bank or Barclays Bank as it was then known. I and other members of the Security Police or the Security Branch spread the story very widely that the friendship was in fact an affair and went to considerable lengths to put pressure on both Mrs Mandela and Mr Chris Ball and the bank, the idea being to create the perception amongst Mrs Mandela's power base, that is the radical black youth, that she had sold out to white capitalism and was having a sexual relationship with a man who epitomised white capitalism.  
 This type of operation was many in which we used accurate intelligence as well as fabrication in order to discredit the target person.
 Later in 1989 and 1990 it was decided that formal Stratcom units with full-time Stratcom representatives be created at all security branches all over South Africa prior to the creation of a formal or full time unit Stratcom units were coordinated in Johannesburg by a few individuals who were given this task but the gist of Stratcom activities were in the Johannesburg area were conducted from Pretoria.   In October 1990 I attended a formal Stratcom training course held at Esselen Park Johannesburg, that should actually read the East Rand.  During this course we were introduced to the various operations and/or projects including Project Wigwam which was the biggest project and which encompassed in full the national objectives of Stratcom, the counteracting a neutralising of the threat from ANC/SACP/COSATU alliance, the PAC and the extreme right wing.  Most of the actions carried out were, I just wish to point out that should be conducted and not concluded, were conducted under it's one and only project Romulus which can be defined as any ad hoc actions to further the aims of Wigwam, ad hoc referring to not only impromptu actions but to covert actions of an illegal nature on occasion.  
 I was on completion of the course appointed to head Wigwam, Romulus in the Johannesburg area.  We were inter alia informed on the course that Stratcom's aims were to reduce the ANC to just another political party within four years.  Radical elements within the ANC had been identified as targets.  The National Party believed that it could negotiate successfully with the moderates and radicals like Mr Chris Hani, Mrs Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Mr Steve Tshwete, Mr Peter Mokaba, Mr Tony Yengeni, Mr Joe Slovo and others had to be neutralised at all costs and obviously by any means possible.
 In the ensuing months after the course I was involved in many, especially Romulus type activities against not only the Tri-partite Alliance but the radicals I've mentioned above.  Using the existing intelligence Stratcom network, I turned a massive information or negative propaganda on a wide variety of matters.  As a basis for this disinformation I relied on intelligence reports including surveillance reports, telephone tappings, postal deceptions, hearsay and rumours and the media.  President Mandela was the obvious target, but due to his impeccable integrity it was difficult to target him in a  Stratcom sense and personally. We however put out the message that he had little control over the radical ANC cadres and SDU's.  There was a power struggle within the ANC hierarchy, he was going senile and had little control over his wife who was running rampant in the townships with a Football Club who inter alia were intimidating the local population. 
 From time to time I received intelligence reports from colleagues in Soweto to the affect that the Mandelas were not sharing a bedroom and argued continuously. When a report for example stated that Mrs Winnie Madikizela Mandela had guests around for drinks I turned out information that she was an alcoholic.  When I heard rumours and received information about her association with activist lawyer Dal Mpofu, I put out the word that she was a nymphomaniac and for good measure her daughter Zinzi was also a nymphomaniac and also had a relationship with Mr Dali Mpofu.  
 Some of this information emanated from agents' informers within the Mandela circle and specifically the Football Club and occasionally it was possible to deduce with some accuracy who the informer was.  One of the reports I recall reading for example concerned Mrs Mandela, her daughter Zinzi and Jerry Richardson going to some or other meeting.  I deduced that Richardson had supplied the information although it is of course possible that he may have related it to another person who was an informer, though I also heard that Richardson's handler was Sergeant Pretorious of Soweto Security Branch.  I also heard from Colleagues in the Soweto Security Branch that most of the Mandela Football Club were informers were glue sniffing marijuana, that is dagga-smoking youngsters and who were easy to recruit as informers.  In some of the negative propaganda that I put out I introduced further fabrications to the effect that Mrs Mandela and Zinzi were also using marijuana, that is dagga and apart from factual evidence, like Mrs Mandela's earlier statement that the ANC would liberate the country with the necklace method, a statement which would be used with great effect in a Stratcom sense.
 On another occasion I spread the fabrication that the President had personally authorised the necklace method and which I believed was widely reported on international media.  Apart from spreading the information locally and nationally and especially via contacts in the intelligence community in the written and electronic media, I was able to recruit an agent in Glasgow, the United Kingdom, Britain  who immediately gave Stratcom Johannesburg an international capability.  Within days I was forwarding masses of Stratcom value material to him by fax, postal service and courier and telephone and not only by myself but via other agents and co-workers.  This agent had a massive conservative contact internationally including politicians, senior journalists, media representatives, intelligence contacts and so on.  Almost immediately dirt on the ANC and including matters relating to Mrs Mandela's activities and other relevant matters began to appear in the international press and of greater importance, in a Stratcom sense were forwarded ultimately to inter-alia the Conservative Party members and the British Prime Minister Mr John Major himself, whom so I heard was horrified with what he saw.
 A similar operation also came to effect as the doors opened in the United States and I was able to claim success with for example an article in Vanity Fair magazine entitled, "How bad is Winnie".  For these activities I received two commendations from the Security Branch hierarchy who were ecstatic with what was being achieved.
 I terminated my service from the Stratcom community in October 1991 when after I had been hospitalised for stress I applied for a transfer to the Security Branch Mossel Bay.  At the time of my departure the Stratcom unit in Johannesburg was headed by Colonel Bruwer with a Captain Erasmus as second in command. Our supreme commander in Johannesburg as it were responsible for Stratcom and intelligence was Brigadier Gouws and all our activities during the whole period I've discussed here fell under Section C.1 of the Security Branch head office.  Stratcom being headed for a time by Colonel Victor McPherson.  In command of C Section was Brigadier Alfred Oosthuizen and the section fell under the command of General P J Viljoen.
 Stratcom activities throughout were conducted on behalf of clients, that is the State President, the Cabinet, sister intelligence departments and the Department of Foreign Affairs and other State departments, for example the Department of Education.  All projects and activities were carried out with the full knowledge of and approval of the relevant ministers who received details thereon from the Stratcom component of the State Security Council.  There was a regular flow of intelligence and on occasion Stratcom value material between different Security branches.  I received information for example on the Mandelas from Security Branch Soweto especially as I developed the international capability and was the best placed person to utilise this information.  I was however only given information on a regular basis although I did recall that I requested but never received detail of for example the death of Stompie Seipei.
 Much of the information that I received was further not of possible Stratcom value and concerned the normal day to day activities of the target group.  My work load was too much for me to bear alone and much of the incoming information was handled by other Stratcom and Intelligence Unit operatives.  I do not know specific actions carried out by the Soweto Stratcom unit which was headed by Colonel de Jager.  My  contact person in Soweto Stratcom Unit was a Sergeant Badenhorst, although I did have a lot of contact with Col de Jager at seminars and meetings.
 Stratcom operations were carried out with all the security branches in South Africa at the time.  In the Soweto Security Branch personnel deal with Stratcom operations worked in tandem with Intelligence Unit.  I'm not sure in which manner Stratcom operations were related to Mrs Winnie Madikizela Mandela or the Football Club were carried out by the Soweto Security Branch but I am reasonably certain that they involved Stratcom intelligence personnel.
I thank you.