POLITICS Reconstructing the raid © Historical Papers, University of the Witewatersrand Papers, University © Historical An aerial shot of Liliesleaf farm the 60s It certainly was not a police solo strike. Rather there were more complex ways in which the combined security services used a range of techniques and tactics to destroy armed opposition to apartheid. By Garth Benneyworth 60 THE THINKER POLITICS iliesleaf provides a focus for the members became complacent, lulled place of residence was Liliesleaf. observance of the transition into a false sense of security presented The archives reveal that, as part Lfrom non-violent resistance into by the façade of the safe house. of an inter-agency operation, the the armed struggle, during the period Despite Nelson Mandela’s capture on farm was already under surveillance immediately after the 1961 Sharpeville 5 August 1962, Liliesleaf continued to during 1962, by at least three security massacre. The era of petitions, strike be used by the allied organisations; force agencies, including, but not action and boycotts had ended. the South African Communist Party exclusively, the Security Branch of the New methods were vital and these (SACP), the ANC, MK, members of South African Police. Knowledge of new forms of struggle centered on the South African Congress of Trade this covert operation was kept from underground activity leading to the Unions (SACTU) and members of the the public domain with fanciful stories emergence of the armed struggle in Indian political organisations, right up propagated by the regime to conceal it. 1961. Liliesleaf is significant in that this until the raid, eleven months later. Three lines of evidence reveal this and is a tangible place where the transition Incredibly so, the underground it should be borne in mind that other into armed struggle occurred and it activities and the use of Liliesleaf by sources may yet be uncovered. represents a seminal shift in South the liberation movements intensified Three parallel lines of investigation Africa's liberation struggle. Currently after August 1962 and continued until by three separate security agencies Liliesleaf is branded as ‘A Place of the 1963 raid. It is possible that more occurred between 1962 and up until Liberation’. Yet Liberation, indeed leaders and operatives visited or stayed the day of the raid. These were the freedom, came at a huge cost. at Liliesleaf after August 1962 than at Security Branch, using its methods of Liliesleaf is also where, on 11 July any other time in the farm’s history informer recruitment and information 1963, an uncannily timed police raid before this date. Meetings of MK’s collected; Republican Intelligence delivered a significant blow to the High Command, the Secretariat and (RI), using informants and information internal resistance to the apartheid the SACP Central Committee, probably trading with foreign intelligence regime. All those at Liliesleaf that day organisations and the South African were arrested; the exceptions being six The underground Communications Security Agency children, three black and three white. (SACSA) which was linked to the South Together with other members of the activities and the use African Defence Force (SADF). liberation movement who were serving of Liliesleaf by the Regarding informants, three are jail sentences or who were arrested known to have assisted the police with elsewhere, they would stand trial in liberation movements information: Bruno Mtolo, Patrick what became a watershed moment in intensified after Mthembu and Bartholomew Hlapane. South African history: the Rivonia Trial. However, within weeks of Nelson The raid and subsequent trial set August 1962 and Mandela’s capture, the Security Branch back the internal struggle for nearly continued until the also had a ten year old informant with a decade. Until recently, the raid is access to the farm: George Mellis, widely understood to have resulted 1963 raid. whose parents owned the Rivonia from informants breaking down and Caravan Park directly across the road providing information about the farm the ANC’s Executive and various from Liliesleaf. Mellis would visit the and its activities. The unfortunate MK committees such as Intelligence, farm and play with his friends Nicholas arrest of key leaders, along with a Logistics, Transport, Housing and and Paul Goldreich, and he wandered haul of archival material and other possibly other committees continued. near the outbuildings while covert incriminating evidence, is widely The concept of security broke meetings were underway. believed to be the result of a ‘lucky down. Too many people used On 5 August 1963, Mellis made a break’ on the part of the police – the Liliesleaf. Its visitors included people sworn statement to Sergeant Fourie, proverbial Mr Plod bumbling in on that known to Security Branch and foreign the commander of Rivonia police Thursday afternoon, on 11 July 1963. intelligence agencies, such as Joe Slovo, station. He stated that about a year The generally accepted central Ruth First, Jack Hodgson, Bram Fischer, before he had reported to his parents thread is that an informant offered to Lionel Bernstein, Harold Wolpe and that he saw white and black men give up the farm yet had only a vague many others. together in the thatch cottage talking idea where it was. Accompanied by Mandela later stated that he and shaking hands, which seemed a detective and after driving around concealed a revolver and notebook strange to him. He further stated that the area for some time he eventually within the upholstery of the front seat on occasions while visiting that he saw identified the property. It is said that of Cecil Williams’s car before his arrest lots of cars parked in the yard and, the informant received R6 000. and that this was never found by the on one occasion, he wrote down the However the archives demonstrate police. It is possible that the police registration numbers of all the cars otherwise. The reconstructed evidence found this notebook and backtracked parked in the yard and handed the paints a rather different picture. his activities in South Africa after his numbers to the Police at Rivonia. Liliesleaf fell captive to the return from Ethiopia, where on his Sergeant Fourie wouldn’t have sat on syndrome of the safe house. Some arrival from Bechuanaland, his first this information. His channel would Volume 80 / 2019 61 POLITICS have been to forward it to the Security tested there and that was electronically Branch. The CIA also detectable, should someone have been In his 1963 statement Mellis indicated who the KGB monitoring. Ludi claims that one of identified from police photographs his agents was an electrical engineer Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis operatives in South and connected to the SACP transport Goldberg and Ahmed Kathrada. His Africa might be and manager who knew a person who ran reference to Goldberg is pertinent in a dry cleaning operation whose vans that Goldberg first visited Liliesleaf in pointed out some of were used to transport underground May 1963. Consequently Mellis was the local communists operatives around the country. The spying on Liliesleaf from his first report agent met the go between at a bus about a year before the raid, soon after to Republican terminus where he was tied up and Mandela’s capture, through to when Intelligence. blindfolded inside the van. Driven to Goldberg visited Liliesleaf between Liliesleaf he was shown the radio. This May and July 1963. The implication information assisted RI who now knew the SIS on a weekly basis and these of this is that Mellis spied on Liliesleaf that in that area there was a place agencies reciprocated. According to right up until the raid, in conjunction where things were happening. Ludi, this foreign intelligence feed also with his parents, given that he was a Although the role of the Security included information about Operation minor. Branch and RI is known, what is not Mayibuye and Radio Freedom, both In December 1962 Fourie received known is the role of the SADF and implicitly connected to Liliesleaf. a summons for a parking offence from its electronic warfare capabilities Liaison between the apartheid the Alberton Magistrates Court to be in locating Liliesleaf. Research and regime, Southern Rhodesia and the served on Arthur Goldreich. Fourie development into electronic warfare Portuguese colonies was improved held it back because he was afraid that started in the early 1950s in response and intelligence sharing became it might meddle with an investigation to SACP underground radio broadcasts. the established modus operandi. already underway. Fourie instructed Initially electronic warfare was Co-operation with the Portuguese his policemen that any action against developed by the Radio Section of the extended into their Angola and anyone at Liliesleaf must first be Engineers Department of the General Mozambique colonies and surveillance cleared with him, for example serving Post Office (GPO), who in the 1950s reports were provided to RI about a summons. No policeman was to go assisted Security Branch in successfully the movements of known South onto the farm for any reason without detecting SACP radio transmissions. African communists travelling through prior authorisation, given that an In 1958 the Engineers Department Portuguese controlled territories. This investigation was underway. The farm acquired more sophisticated included persons such as Ruth First, was sanitised from any official physical equipment to augment their direction Hillary Flegg, Ben Turok, VW Mkwai, interruption. finding methods; importing the Moses Mabida, Julius Baker and P On 14 January 1963, Colonel Adcock System from the USA, the Beylerveldt. Hendrik van den Bergh was appointed most advanced of its kind at the time. According to Ludi persons of head of the South African Police Located at Derdepoort, this static interest that formed RI’s intelligence Security Branch. Van den Bergh system included an all-round direction target were Govan Mbeki, Raymond created Republican Intelligence finding capability.