S.A.’s first spy case

Press, 24 September 1983, Page 16

S.A.’s first spy case

From “The Economist,” London

,For a country that believes itself to be a target of Russian subversion, South Africa has seemingly received remarkably little attention from Soviet spies. One spy picked up in 1967 and another in 1980 were handed to the back Soviet Union in exchanges arranged by western allies. Now South Africa is having its first real spy trial. The case, which began in the Cape Town supreme court on September 5, is being held in camera. The central figure, Commodore Dieter Gerhardt, is a wellconnected member of the Afrikaner establishment who held a key job and knew everyone who mattered, including the Prime Minister, Mr P. W. Botha. The accusations made against him have caused the sort of public shock that was aroused in Britain

when Kim Philby and his highplaced friends defected to Russia.

Mr Gerhardt commanded the Simonstown naval dockyard until his arrest in January. He and his Swiss-born wife, Ruth, who became a naturalised South African six years ago, are charged with high treason. Mr Gerhardt, who is 47, joined the South African navy as a cadet when he was 16. He got to know Mr Botha when the Prime Minister was Minister of Defence. Dieter and Ruth Gerhardt were occasional guests at the Botha home.

As commander of South Africa’s only naval dockyard he would have had an intimate knowledge of his country’s weapon developments, notably its sea-skimming missiles, and would know whether

there is any truth in persistent reports that South Africa test fired a nuclear device from a frigate in the South Atlantic four years ago. According to the charges, Mr Gerhardt and his wife were trained in espionage techniques and established a communications system that included the use of the dead-letter boxes, coded messages, radio transmissions and couriers. They are alleged to have made secret trips abroad using code names and false passports. The messages they are said to have passed to the Russians include information about security systems, government policies, the attitudes of the different population; groups, South Africa’s relations with other countries, the state of the economy and the effects of arms and oil embargoes. — Copyright, “The Economist.”