Bureau of State Security
Like other appendages of the Apartheid security forces, it has been implicated in human rights violations, political repression, and extra-judicial killings.
[1] For most of its existence, BOSS was headed by General Hendrik van den Bergh, who, while special Security Adviser to Prime Minister John Vorster, was instrumental in its establishment.
[1][2] General van den Bergh resigned as director-general in 1978 in the wake of the Muldergate scandal, and BOSS was renamed the Department of National Security.
On 28 August 1968, Hendrik van den Bergh, the head of the Security Branch and Deputy Police Commissioner, was instructed to start planning the new organisation.
[4] On the 1 October, he was promoted to the rank of General and appointed special Security Adviser to Vorster, who had become prime minister after the assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd.
[5] Vorster and van der Bergh were close allies – they were both former members of the pro-Nazi Ossewabrandwag during World War II, and had been imprisoned for sabotage together.
[6][7] Because of this close association, and the extensive powers he had under his advisory role, van der Bergh was seen as "untouchable," which led to tensions within the state that were only exacerbated by the establishment of "super-security" structure BOSS.
[5] Finally, and most controversially, the General Law Amendment Act of 1969 included a provision which authorised the Prime Minister, his nominee, or any Cabinet Minister to veto the provision of any evidence or documents to any court or statutory body, provided the evidence or documents were "prejudicial to the interests of the State or public security.
[5] These amendments were met with alarm among liberal and anti-Apartheid civil society groups, with opposition politician Alex Hepple likening BOSS to the Gestapo.
[4] As van den Bergh was a close ally of Vorster, military intelligence saw it as a foregone conclusion that BOSS would achieve favour.
[1][4] The Council was supposed to coordinate information gathered by BOSS and other entities, thus ensuring that none could attempt to dominate the others politically, but this system ultimately failed to reduce the rivalry among different security and intelligence agencies.
[3] BOSS was involved in gathering and assessing intelligence about anti-Apartheid and liberation movements, including identifying targets for raids, both in South Africa and in neighbouring countries.
[1] In late 1979 and early 1980, the British Observer published allegations – substantiated by documents leaked by a former BOSS agent – that BOSS, then known as the Department of National Security, had been intercepting the mail and private telephone calls of prominent politicians and civil society leaders, including Alan Paton, André Brink, and Helen Suzman.
[1] The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) concluded in its final report that BOSS was "possibly" involved in extra-judicial killings, and probably responsible for the murders of Dube and Tiro.
[4] According to the TRC, the dominance of BOSS and the Security Branch had already began to wane in the late 1970s,[1] amid what was later described as "years of illegality, financial abuse and political meddling" at BOSS/DONS.
