Hefer contacts agent RS452

2003-10-21 10:44

Bloemfontein - The Hefer Commission confirmed on Tuesday it had been in contact with a former Eastern Cape human rights lawyer who had confessed to being apartheid government agent RS452.

Commission secretary John Bacon said Vanessa Brereton, who now lives in London, contacted the commission last Sunday through a go-between.

She agreed to prepare an affidavit to be submitted to the commission, Bacon said.

He "left it wide open for her to decide what information is relevant".

Bacon said he did not know whether Brereton had any relevant information regarding national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka.

The Hefer Commission was established to investigate allegations that Ngcuka acted as a spy for the apartheid government. Ngcuka has been linked to codename RS542.

Bacon said on Tuesday that Brereton's revelation had helped the commission tremendously, but it did not conclude its work.

It still had to determine whether Ngcuka was an agent under any other codename.

Brereton admitted in an interview with Independent Newspapers, published on Monday, that she was agent RS452.

'Have had enough of lies and deceit'

Allegations against Ngcuka became public in September this year.

His accusers before the commission, former transport minister Mac Maharaj and defence department advisor Mo Shaik, confirmed at the time that Ngcuka had been suspected of spying against his anti-apartheid activist colleagues.

"I was RS452 and I have had enough of the lies and deceit," Brereton reportedly said in the interview.

According to the article she is reluctant to travel to South Africa, and there appears to be a possibility that the commission will travel to London.

Molly Blackburn named

Brereton said in the interview that she was recruited by security police operative Karl "Zac" Edwards, who was a bureau for state security agent, too.

He recruited Brereton as a fellow anti-communist and was her handler throughout her six-year involvement in spying on anti-apartheid activists such as Molly Blackburn.

Brereton says in the interview she began to doubt her involvement with the apartheid state's security forces some time before her misgivings reached a climax.

That came in 1989 with the killing of three black security policemen and an askari - the name given an African National Congress operative who had turned to work for the apartheid state.

Brereton gives no reasons for her work as a spy. She says she has come forward now to set the record straight about Ngcuka and to expose the secret past.

- SAPA