Alexander Jones

Alexander Jones ( soldier,  whistleblower)
Member of	South African Institute for Maritime Research
Blew the whistle on Keith Maxwell and SAIMR

Alexander Jones is a former South African solider who was employed in a paramilitary capacity by the South African Institute for Maritime Research (SAIMR). He appeared in the 2019 documentary film Cold Case Hammarskjöld and was subsequently interviewed by the Independent Appointee of Sweden for the purposes of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld investigation.

Film interview

Jones in the film with Brügger and Björkdahl

“It was clandestine operations. We were involved in coups, taking over countries for other leaders,” said Alexander Jones, who has detailed his years as an intelligence officer with the group. SAIMR’s leaders described themselves as “anti-communist” to him at the time but the group was underpinned by racism, he said. “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, he 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,” Jones told filmmakers investigating the crash.

Jones claims he answered a SAIMR advertisement in a South African newspaper three decades ago and served for several years. He decided to speak out because he felt he needed closure and because young South Africans should know the truth.

“Anybody that resisted any white form of manipulation on the African continent, SAIMR was prepared to go and quell those for a price,” Jones said. “And that is one thing that Dag Hammarskjöld was totally against. He wanted every country for the people of that country. He was killed because he was going to change the way that Africa dealt with the rest of the world financially, and he was a threat.”

Jones was tracked down by the makers of a new documentary, Cold Case Hammarskjöld, who were looking into SAIMR because of documents handed to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission by the country’s National Intelligence Agency two decades ago.

Jones claims to have had a senior role 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 South African armed forces, 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.” Asked by filmmakers if he had killed people himself, he said “yes”.

Jones says he left SAIMR shortly before the advent of majority rule, and destroyed all evidence of his membership.

UN interview

During the interview, Jones stated that he had entered South African military service when he was 16 or 17 years old and had trained in the intelligence service. He felt his service to be an honour, as he had always wanted to be a soldier. At the time of leaving high school around 1989 or 1990, Jones saw an advertisement in the newspaper The Citizen stating that an organisation was looking for people for military operations. It was his opinion that there was no future in the South African Defence Force, so he was interested in the advertisement for financial reasons.

He and some friends responded to the advertisement and were invited to a meeting that took place in central Johannesburg in the old Carlton Centre, which at that time was a hotel. At the meeting, he was told that the organisation was called the South African Institute for Maritime Research, or SAIMR. He noted that it seemed to follow naval traditions (a fact that after joining he said was affirmed, as SAIMR used a satellite naval base linked to the South African Navy at Wemmer Pan in Johannesburg as a base of operations).

Jones stated that at the recruitment meeting, around 1990 in Johannesburg, applicants were introduced to two individuals: Keith Maxwell, who appeared to be in his late 40s or 50s and who was introduced as “the Commodore”, and an unnamed junior person. They displayed “propaganda”, or marketing material about SAIMR, to the potential recruits. This included sets of three big photographs that the applicants were told showed the most successful SAIMR operations, which involved the assassination of a high-ranking person. Neither the operation nor the high-ranking person was further described at that time. Jones understood that the photographs were displayed as propaganda to explain to recruits the ideology of SAIMR as an operational paramilitary organisation, with which recruits would get to see action and make money.

When displaying the photographs of the operation, Commodore Maxwell appeared very proud and clearly stated that he was part of that specific operation in which they successfully assassinated the high-ranking official. He stated that it took place in 1960 in the Congo, but Jones did not understand any specific significance or who the official might have been. In one of the photographs, three men were standing by burned out trees. Jones formed the view that it was a very young Maxwell in the photograph, together with a man he later came to know as “Captain Cedars” and a third individual whom he did not know. The second photograph was of trees in the burned forest. The third photograph was what Jones described as clearly being a plane crash showing burned wreckage, in which a propeller was also seen. He stated that this was the only time he saw those photographs.

Jones stated that after the recruitment meeting, he joined SAIMR and was involved in an operational cell called the Delta Unit. Each cell was unaware of the identities of the people in other cells and had different operational functions, including administration and finance. Because of his intelligence training, Jones became a Lieutenant, a junior officer in the organisation. Cedars, an American, was the commanding officer of the Delta Unit and was a similar age to Maxwell, in his late 40s or 50s at that time.

Regarding Maxwell, Jones stated that he would wear a Nelson-era British-style naval uniform with epaulettes and a sword. Jones stated that the organisation was pompous and fanatic about English naval traditions. In terms of other senior officials, Jones met on one occasion a “Flag Commodore Wagner”, who at the time was in his late 70s or 80s and who was ranked higher than Maxwell. Maxwell was then a Commodore, but later started referring to himself as Flag Commodore. Of other ranking officials, Jones was also aware of a Lieutenant Commander Pike and a Dalgleish. He was aware of the name Malan, but had only heard of the name.

Jones stated that he never knew who the financiers of SAIMR were, but his perception was that it was being funded externally, as Maxwell never had money himself. He noted that at some of the important meetings, one or two foreigners would join, including French and British (as he ascertained by accents). He was not aware of whether SAIMR was affiliated with other governments.

The logo of SAIMR was known to members and was the same across the organisation. It was on all SAIMR papers and insignias. Jones believed that the same logo had been used over time and had not changed.

Jones stated that he left SAIMR in 1993 because his ideology had changed. He wished to make clear that he was a different person to who he was when he joined SAIMR, that it had been difficult to come out and talk about the organisation and that he had done so with great personal sacrifice to himself and his family.

Jones stated that he had not previously spoken about his experiences with Susan Williams or journalists. If true, this would mean that the statements made by the anonymous source to Williams (who stated that he had previously been a member of SAIMR and spoke of certain similar attributes of SAIMR and/or Maxwell) are corroborated by Jones’ statements.

 

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