Bureau of State Security
 Bureau of State Security  (Intelligence agency)   | |
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The Bureau of State Security (BOSS) was the main South African state intelligence agency from 1969 to 1980.[1]
A high-budget and secretive institution, BOSS reported directly to the Prime Minister on its broad national security mandate. Under this mandate, it was at the centre of the Apartheid state's domestic intelligence and foreign intelligence activities, including counterinsurgency efforts both inside South Africa and in neighbouring countries. Like other appendages of the Apartheid security forces, it has been implicated in human rights violations, political repression, and extra-judicial killings.
Antecedents
BOSS took on different names before and after the official establishment thereof. During the 1930’s, a special branch of the South African Police was created. In the 1950s De Beers International Diamond Security Organisation provided the blueprint for its future operations. In 1960, it became the official security branch. Thereafter, in 1963, the Republican Intelligence (RI) was born from where BOSS was created on May 1st 1969.
On 1 September 1978, the name of BOSS changed to the Department of National Security (DONS). Just a short year after that it officially became the National Intelligence Agency.[2]
Politicisation of law enforcement
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. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission saw the creation of BOSS as an example of the growing National Party politicisation of South African law enforcement, intelligence and security services, which over time was able to dominate both the South African Government and culture, while in turn being dominated by Prime Minister Vorster's office.
Even as BOSS cooperated closely with other parts of the intelligence and security services – especially the South African Defence Force, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Security Branch of the South African Police – they were frequently locked in an extremely hostile competition over funding, power, and resources.
Scandal
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 (DONS). In the same year, Vorster was replaced as Prime Minister by Defence Minister, P. W. Botha, whose government pursued a protracted restructuring of the intelligence services, culminating in the replacement of the Department with the National Intelligence Service in 1980.[3]
References
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