Keith Maxwell
 Keith Maxwell  (deep state operative) | |
|---|---|
 Only known picture of "Commodore” Maxwell | |
| Died | 2006 |
| Founder of | South African Institute for Maritime Research |
Keith Maxwell, a South African deep state operative, was the self-declared “commodore” of the South African Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR). In a handwritten memoir that ended up with the family of an SAIMR veteran, Keith Maxwell claimed SAIMR had brought down the plane in which UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was killed.[1]
Contents
HIV/AIDS
In the 2019 film "Cold Case Hammarskjöld", Maxwell was accused of deliberately spreading HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa.[2]
Interviewed
Investigative journalist De Wet Potgieter interviewed Maxwell for an article in the 1990s. He took the only known picture of the “commodore”, and also collected a cache of papers from Maxwell.
Those papers included a section of Maxwell's autobiography and purported lists of recruits for several operations, which were used to track down former SAIMR members, only two of whom agreed to talk.
Former SAIMR members
Alexander Jones was one former SAIMR member who described the group as being “anti-communist” and underpinned by racism:
- “We were trying to retain the white supremacy on the African continent.”
Jones was clear that SAIMR liked to claim ultimate responsibility for killing the UN chief. Photos of the crash site and wreckage, with purported members of the group standing nearby, featured in a presentation made to potential members when he joined three decades ago, Jones said.
- “They didn’t tell us at that point in time that it was Hammarskjöld; they just said that they had taken out a very high-profile political opponent.”
The other former member, Clive Jansen van Vuuren, said he spent two or three months training with the group, which he thought had ties to the security forces. “I know it’s linked to the intelligence bureau of South Africa, but we were never given specifics,” he said.
He had kept a certificate that names him as a petty officer and carries the same slightly bizarre emblem as all other SAIMR papers – the figurehead of the British ship the Cutty Sark. But he said he never went on operations.
Jones claimed to have had a more senior role, over a much longer period, and describes the group as a powerful militia:
“SAIMR was not a Mickey Mouse organisation. We were not just a group of guys that got together in the weekend and decided to go do some military exercises and stuff. That was a living, breathing body,” he said.
He was recruited as an intelligence officer, after serving in a similar position with the SADF, and participated in several operations:
“I was definitely in the frontline: operational frontline, hand-to-hand frontline, fighting frontline. Leading operations, if you want to call it that.”
Jones says he left SAIMR shortly before the advent of majority rule, and destroyed all evidence of his membership.
Maxwell commanded SAIMR the whole time Jones served. A strange character, charismatic and idiosyncratic, he wore naval whites at all times unless he was in his admiral’s uniform, van Vuuren, Jones and Potgieter remember. But he was also extremely dangerous. “If he didn’t like you, and if you posed a threat, he would take you out,” Jones said.
Claude Newbury
The penchant for dressing up was confirmed by a doctor, Claude Newbury, who met him through anti-abortion advocacy. He told the filmmakers Maxwell invited him to join SAIMR, describing it as a group focused mostly on hunting for lost treasure. At a private dinner, they had something
“a little bit like a ceremony – he had dressed up like an admiral in the British navy from 250 years ago, with a tricorn hat, and a cutlass, and a naval uniform with lots of buttons.”
Newberry also confirmed that Maxwell was involved in violence in South Africa, forcing a doctor who was performing abortions to leave the country.
“He went down and visited this Dutch abortionist and said to him, you are not welcome here, and killing of babies is an unacceptable pastime, and for the sake of your health I advise you go back to the Netherlands. Which apparently the chap did.”
Tienie Groenewald
South Africa’s former head of military intelligence, Tienie Groenewald, appears in some of Maxwell’s papers. In an interview recorded before his death in 2015, General Groenewald claimed he had never heard of SAIMR but remembered meeting the “commodore”.
He described Maxwell as an intelligence operative with suspected links to foreign spies, who wanted to meet him in the dying days of apartheid to discuss an armed uprising to block the advent of democratic rule. Maxwell offered both men and arms, claiming “he had resources, to use violence, and to supply weapons, and so on and so forth”.
Although Groenewald said he declined the offer, he described Maxwell as the credible leader of a mercenary group. “He appeared to be someone who was in authority … He obviously had a background in intelligence,” he told the filmmakers. “I couldn’t prove it but I was convinced that he was financed and directed by MI6.”
Groenewald, who had served as air attache at the South African embassy in London, added: “After spending three and a half years in Britain, you get to know some people involved in the intelligence field. And certain of the names which are mentioned in our discussions were familiar to him.”[3]
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Synopsis of "Who Really Killed Chris Hani?" | Summary | 14 January 2025 | Christopher Nicholson | 'According to South African intelligence sources, convicted assassin Janusz Waluś was intimately associated with the South African Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR) …' We are told that according to a November 1990 article in the Sunday Times of London, an investigation by one South African intelligence agency 'determined that SAIMR was a front for Britain's MI6'. |
