Never be caught out! (Part 1)

It was 1981 when Gary was called up for compulsory military service in the South African Defence Force, reported for processing at the Drill Hall in Johannesburg, and dispatched to Kimberley for his basic training. At the Danie Theron base, Diskobolos, just on the outskirts of Kimberley, uniform and kit would be issued, a barracks allocated and training would commence.

Like all white, male, school leavers, two years of national service had been compulsory for a while now, since South Africa had become deeply embroiled in the Border War in northern South West Africa (Namibia). It was a rite of passage in the transition to adulthood for thousands of youngsters who, if they hadn’t delayed their conscription for further academic studies, entered the military as teenage boys and emerged after two years as “men.” Gary was one of the many who hadn’t yet decided on a career path, so the “gap years” in the SADF served as a useful hiatus during which a seventeen year old could contemplate the course of his life and career. A stint on the Angolan border would be served later in the year, contributing to some life experience as part of a team of buddies who would look out for one another and many of whom would become life-long friends.

Gary was something of an oddball. At school he would have been recognised as a bit of a “nerd” – academically inclined, well-read and with a razor-sharp mind. He stood out not only because of his intellect, but because he cut a quirky bespectacled figure with lenses the thickness of coke bottle bases. He was teased about ostensibly having good eyes to be able to see through those lenses. He had a habit of wrinkling his nose while concentrating or listening to what someone had to say. The army insisted on chaps nicknamed “brilletjies” (little spectacles) securing the earpieces with elastic to ensure the SADF was not held responsible for specs being ruined during robust training. This appendage, as well as his short, stocky frame, drew attention to him. Usually it is undesirable to draw too much attention to oneself in the early stages of training, but his physical strength and mental acuity offset any negative first impressions.

During basic training the instructors already identified leadership potential in this teen who was too young to vote in South Africa, but not too young to fight in a war. He was singled out for inclusion in a group that would be given Junior Leadership training and promotion. Gary went on to complete this training, successfully finish “vasbyt” (a grueling route march), serve at the front and then specialise in a field considered appropriate and commensurate with his particular aptitude and skill set. The first year ended with him being commissioned as a second lieutenant and performing a function as a “snuffel-tiffie” (intelligence corps). Kimberley was by that time home to 11 Commando, Intelligence School, and he was posted to Sector 20, Rundu (a town in northern South West Africa), from whence he would report to his seniors in Kimberley. From his outpost in Rundu, having mastered the Kwangali language, he was able to move amongst the local population along the Kavango river, gathering useful information for his intelligence reports that were pored over by the “processing” unit (“verwerking”, in Afrikaans, the lingua franca of the SADF in those days).

All too soon Gary’s two year stint as a national serviceman came to an end. Thence to Rhodes University in Grahamstown where he studied Accounting with a view to becoming a Chartered Accountant. 

Whilst a student at Rhodes, Gary immersed himself in his studies in much the same manner as he had done at school. He was not active in campus politics as a young first year student, so it came as rather a surprise that he was approached early in his second year by an operative in the National Intelligence Service (which had replaced the infamous Bureau for State Security – BOSS – in 1980). It was the early ‘80s and campus politics at English universities was a hotbed of resistance to apartheid and the Nationalist government of the day. The government had by that time adopted its Total Strategy approach to dealing with what it saw as a Total Onslaught against the state by Soviet-aligned forces during the decades long ideological Cold War. No doubt Gary’s intelligence gathering acumen that had been of a purely operational nature in Rundu, had not gone unnoticed or been forgotten by the intelligence community upon completion of his national service. He had been assessed at NIS headquarters and deemed to potentially be a useful infiltrator in the murky world of Cold War politics. Having been apolitical as a first year student, he fitted the bill – clearly he hadn’t tilted towards the opponents of the regime and could be discreetly engaged to keep tabs on the “liberale Engelse” (liberal English speaking students – closely aligned to NUSAS).

Thus began Gary’s journey into the shady underbelly of Cold War intrigue of the ‘80s. His first tentative steps were in NUSAS (National Union of South African Students), then as an elected member of the Student Council. He would ultimately immerse himself in resistance politics, write and present papers and recruit anti-apartheid agents. He kept his pose exquisitely, all the while undermining the very structures he was infiltrating – regularly reporting to his NIS handler. Upon completion of his undergraduate and post-graduate studies, he used the useful clandestine links he had forged as an agent familiar with influential businessmen on both sides of the ideological war, to advance his career. His “good eyes” about which he had been teased so many years before, were used skillfully – gathering information that he identified as useful in this game of playing one side off against the other. A quiet, discreet fellow, both forces ranged against each other viewed him as a loyal and reliable agent for their cause. Gary was a master at the art of watching, waiting, diligently and cunningly reporting only what he knew his handlers wanted to hear and using this knowledge for self-preservation and self-promotion. 

His descent into the depths of a duplicitous underworld of surreptitious eavesdropping, planting of salacious tales delicately inserted in the “knowledge base” of disparate and divergent ideological cultures, and his ability to weave a web of deceit, was done with masterful precision. High on the scale of priorities was his dictum: “Never be caught out!”

[Next week this piece of fiction will be taken further – a web of intrigue will be spun with the Cold War as background]