Olivia Anne Marie Forsyth (born May 1960), agent number RS407 and codename "Lara", is a former spy for the apartheid government in South Africa.

Forsyth attended Rhodes University from 1982 to 1985, where she majored in journalism and politics and earned an African Studies Honors degree.

[4] She was assigned to the Protocol Department, based in the Union Buildings, where she was approached by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

[7] From June 1985 Forsyth travelled to various Frontline States – Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania – from the Johannesburg office of a Security Branch front company called John Fitzgerard and Associates, in an operation entitled 'Operation Olivetti'.

Forsyth arranged for journalists and exiles to write reports, including some on the eleven-nation Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC).

[10] In June 1986, on a trip to Lusaka, a number of ANC officials stopped believing Forsyth's credentials as a double agent.

[13] The Angolan government initially refused permission for Forsyth to leave the country, with the Angolan ambassador to Zambia, Luis Neto Kiambata, saying she was "a regional problem" because she was "spying in all the Frontline states" and that "President Kenneth Kaunda, as the Frontline States' chairman, should decide on whether she should be given a visa".

[15] The Angolan government offered to release Forsyth in exchange for a number of important anti-apartheid prisoners in South Africa.

[17] British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe raised the Forsyth issue with Angolan ministers as an obstacle to good relations, and the British government informed Angola that a planned visit by Foreign Office Minister Linda Chalker was out of the question until the matter was resolved.

[21] To pre-empt the ANC's revelation of her defection, on 3 February 1989, the SAP launched a propaganda campaign through its Strategic Communications arm, Stratcom.