Olivia Forsyth

Last updated

Olivia Forsyth
Lt Olivia Forsyth.jpg
Forsyth, photograph taken as part of a press release for Operation Yurchenko, 1 February 1989
Born20 May 1960 (1960-05-20) (age 64)
Kensington, London, England, UK
AllegianceFlag of South Africa (1928-1982).svg South Africa
Service / branchFlag of the South African Police (1981-1994).svg South African Police
Years of service1981–1989
Rank Lieutenant
Service number RS407

Olivia Anne Marie Forsyth (born May 1960), agent number RS407 and codename "Lara", is a former spy for the apartheid government in South Africa. Having attained the rank of lieutenant in the Security Branch of the South African Police (SAP), [1] Forsyth defected to the African National Congress (ANC) and was incarcerated at Quatro prison camp in northern Angola. Following her escape, Forsyth spent six months hiding in the British embassy in Luanda. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Olivia Forsyth was born in Kensington, London, England, in May 1960, to South African parents Joan Yvonne (née de Vos) and Peter Traill Forbes Forsyth. The family moved back to South Africa in January 1962 and settled in Natal Province. Forsyth started her education at Westville Infant School. After her mother moved with the children to Pietersburg (now Polokwane) in the Transvaal (now part of Limpopo), Forsyth attended Capricorn Primary and Capricorn High School, where she matriculated in 1977 and was awarded honours with academic distinction. She was a school prefect and house captain as well as a member of the Pietersburg Junior Town Council. [3]

From 1978 to 1980 Forsyth attended the University of the Witwatersrand, graduating with a double major in English and Afrikaans-Nederlands[ dubious – discuss ] and a sub major in Zulu; she also studied German. Forsyth attended Rhodes University from 1982 to 1985, where she majored in journalism and politics and earned an African Studies Honors degree. In 1985 Forsyth registered for a master's degree in journalism but did not complete it.

Spying career

Foreign Affairs

From May to November 1981, Forsyth worked at the Department of Foreign Affairs (now the Department of International Relations and Cooperation) in Pretoria as a foreign service officer. [4] She was assigned to the Protocol Department, based in the Union Buildings, where she was approached by the National Intelligence Service (NIS). Forsyth joined the Security Branch of the South African Police (SAP) in November 1981 during which time she was recruited by Craig Williamson and trained at the spy training center known as Daisy Farm. [5]

Rhodes University

Forsyth operated at Rhodes University under cover as a student from 1982 until 1985, becoming a leader in anti-apartheid groups. She became chairperson of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) local committee at Rhodes, media officer on the Rhodes Students' Representative Council, chair of the local End Conscription Campaign (ECC), treasurer of the campus Women's Movement, and editor of the student newspaper Rhodeo and of the community paper Grahamstown Voice. [6] Janet Cherry, a former underground operative for the African National Congress (ANC) and leading activist in the Eastern Cape, said Forsyth had led a double life by completely "integrating herself into student life". [7]

Operation Olivetti

From June 1985 Forsyth travelled to various Frontline States – Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania – from the Johannesburg office of a Security Branch front company called John Fitzgerard and Associates, in an operation entitled 'Operation Olivetti'. Forsyth arranged for journalists and exiles to write reports, including some on the eleven-nation Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC). One of the journalists said they had been paid $150 from a numbered Swiss bank account. [8] Forsyth also obtained accreditation as a journalist to one of the SADCC conferences in Harare. There, Forsyth made contact with the ANC and subsequently defected. After revealing the names and details of a number of Security Branch agents, Forsyth offered to become a double agent for the ANC. In Lusaka, Forsyth met Ronnie Kasrils, then-Intelligence Chief of Umkhonto We Sizwe. [9] The ANC assigned her several missions in South Africa. [10]

Detention

In June 1986, on a trip to Lusaka, a number of ANC officials stopped believing Forsyth's credentials as a double agent. [11] ANC Security Chief Mzwai Piliso decided to send Forsyth to Quatro, the ANC detention camp in northern Angola, where she was held prisoner for seven and a half months. In February 1987, Forsyth was released from Quatro following the intervention of Kasrils and Umkhonto We Sizwe leader Chris Hani. [9] She was taken to an ANC safe house in Luanda, where she remained for the next fifteen months. During this time, the ANC tried to negotiate with the South African government to use Forsyth in a prisoner exchange with ANC members who had been sentenced to death. [12]

Escape to British Embassy

Forsyth escaped to the British embassy in Luanda on 2 May 1988. [2] Forsyth's presence at the embassy made headlines on 31 July 1988. [13] The Angolan government initially refused permission for Forsyth to leave the country, with the Angolan ambassador to Zambia, Luis Neto Kiambata, saying she was "a regional problem" because she was "spying in all the Frontline states" and that "President Kenneth Kaunda, as the Frontline States' chairman, should decide on whether she should be given a visa". [14] Sources in the ANC and anti-apartheid movement claimed that Forsyth had been captured and escaped twice. [15] The Angolan government offered to release Forsyth in exchange for a number of important anti-apartheid prisoners in South Africa. [16] The British government reportedly rejected the deal. [17]

British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe raised the Forsyth issue with Angolan ministers as an obstacle to good relations, and the British government informed Angola that a planned visit by Foreign Office Minister Linda Chalker was out of the question until the matter was resolved. [18] Forsyth remained in the embassy compound until 16 November 1988, when she was granted an exit visa. The Angolan News Agency reported that Forsyth had been a spy since 1981 and that she was being expelled from Angola. [19] Forsyth was accompanied by embassy officials to the airport in Luanda and flew to Paris and then to Heathrow Airport, where she was reunited with her father. [20]

South Africa: Operation Yurchenko

Forsyth and her father eventually returned to South Africa. [21] To pre-empt the ANC's revelation of her defection, on 3 February 1989, the SAP launched a propaganda campaign through its Strategic Communications arm, Stratcom. Called 'Operation Yurchenko', the campaign claimed that Forsyth had been a highly successful spy. The claim received pages of coverage in the South African newspapers. [22] [23] [24] [25]

The ANC issued a statement confirming that they had approached the South African government in an attempt to swap Forsyth for condemned ANC members, including the Sharpeville Six and Robert McBride. The statement also gave details of police agents whose details Forsyth had revealed to the ANC. [26] ANC sources in London said the Forsyth operation had been a huge espionage blunder for South Africa. [27] At a press conference, officials of the NUSAS and other anti-apartheid organisations said the revelations were an attempt to discredit white activists and an elaborate cover-up for a botched operation; they were concerned that this could be an attempt to build up Forsyth's credibility to use her as an “expert” witness in political trials. [28]

Later life

Forsyth resigned from the Security Branch in November 1989; she now lives in the United Kingdom, having taught English at an independent senior school, The Grange School Northwich where she revealed her previous secret identity in a whole school assembly, for several years. In July 2015 Forsyth published her memoir, Agent 407: A South African Spy Breaks Her Silence. [29] [30] [31]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winnie Madikizela-Mandela</span> South African activist and politician (1936–2018)

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. She served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003, and from 2009 until her death, and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party, she served on the ANC's National Executive Committee and headed its Women's League. Madikizela-Mandela was known to her supporters as the "Mother of the Nation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ciskei</span> Former bantustan in South Africa (1981–94)

Ciskei, officially the Republic of Ciskei, was a Bantustan for the Xhosa people, located in the southeast of South Africa. It covered an area of 7,700 square kilometres (3,000 sq mi), almost entirely surrounded by what was then the Cape Province, and possessed a small coastline along the shore of the Indian Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Slovo</span> South African politician

Yossel Mashel Slovo, commonly known as Joe Slovo, was a South African politician, and an opponent of the apartheid system. A Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Communist Party (SACP), a leading member of the African National Congress (ANC), and a commander of the ANC's military wing uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). Slovo was a delegate to the multiracial Congress of the People of June 1955 which drew up the Freedom Charter. He was imprisoned for six months in 1960, and emerged as a leader of uMkhonto we Sizwe the following year. He lived in exile from 1963 to 1990, conducting operations against the apartheid régime from the United Kingdom, Angola, Mozambique, and Zambia. In 1990, he returned to South Africa, and took part in the negotiations that ended apartheid. He became known for proposing the "sunset clauses" covering the 5 years following a democratic election, including guarantees and concessions to all sides, and his fierce non-racialist stance. After the elections of 1994, he became Minister for Housing in Nelson Mandela's government. He died of cancer in 1995.

The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was the previous name of an intelligence agency of the South African government. Currently it is known as the Domestic Branch of the State Security Agency. It is responsible for domestic and counter-intelligence within the Republic of South Africa. The branch is run by a Director, who reports to the Director-General of the State Security Agency. The Director is also a member of the National Intelligence Co-Ordinating Committee (NICOC).

Dieter Felix Gerhardt is a former commodore in the South African Navy and commander of the strategic Simon's Town naval dockyard. He was arrested by the FBI in New York City in 1983 following information obtained from a Soviet defector. He was convicted of high treason as a spy for the Soviets for a period of twenty years in South Africa together with his second wife, Ruth, who had acted as his courier. Both were released prior to the change of government following the 1994 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Williamson</span> White South African pro-apartheid state-sponsored terrorist

Craig Michael Williamson, is a former officer in the South African Police, who was exposed as a spy and assassin for the Security Branch in 1980. Williamson was involved in a series of events involving state-sponsored terrorism. This included overseas bombings, burglaries, kidnappings, assassinations and propaganda during the apartheid era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronnie Kasrils</span> South African politician (born 1938)

Ronald Kasrils is a South African politician, former guerrilla and military commander. He served in a number of ministerial posts, including the as Minister for Intelligence Services from 2004 to 2008. He was a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1987 to 2007 as well as a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) from December 1986 to 2007.

Aziz Goolam Hoosein Pahad was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist who was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 2008. He was a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress from 1985 to 2007.

Nan Cross was a South African anti-apartheid and anti-conscription activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuban intervention in Angola</span> Cuban operation in southwestern Africa

The Cuban intervention in Angola began on the 5th of November 1975, when Cuba sent combat troops in support of the communist-aligned People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) against the pro-western coalition of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). The intervention came after the outbreak of the Angolan Civil War, which occurred after the former Portuguese colony was granted independence after the Angolan War of Independence. The civil war quickly became a proxy war between the Eastern Bloc, led by the Soviet Union, and the Western Bloc, led by the United States. South Africa and the United States backed UNITA and the FNLA, while communist nations backed the MPLA.

Eleanor Kasrils was a Scottish-South African anti-apartheid activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Execution of Benjamin Moloise</span> 1985 execution in South Africa

Malesela Benjamin Moloise was a South African poet and political activist who came to international attention following his arrest and subsequent execution by the government of South Africa. From Soweto, Moloise worked as an upholsterer before turning to poetry during his time on death row. In 1983, Moloise was arrested for the 1982 murder of Phillipus Selepe, a black security policeman who assisted in capturing three African National Congress (ANC) members. Although he initially confessed to the murder, he later retracted the statement during his trial. Moloise's death sentence sparked national and international outrage and was seen as emblematic of South Africa's brutal crackdown on anti-apartheid activists.

<i>Student Comrade Prisoner Spy</i> 2016 book by Bridget Hilton-Barber

Student Comrade Prisoner Spy is a 2016 autobiography by South African journalist Bridget Hilton-Barber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angola–Turkey relations</span> Bilateral relations

Angola–Turkey relations are the bilateral relations between Angola and Turkey. The Turkish Embassy in Luanda opened on April 1, 2010. The Angolan embassy in Ankara opened on April 4, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Security Branch (South Africa)</span> State intelligence agency, 1947 to 1991

The Security Branch of the South African Police, established in 1947 as the Special Branch, was the security police apparatus of the apartheid state in South Africa. From the 1960s to the 1980s, it was one of the three main state entities responsible for intelligence gathering, the others being the Bureau for State Security and the Military Intelligence division of the South African Defence Force. In 1987, at its peak, the Security Branch accounted for only thirteen percent of police personnel, but it wielded great influence as the "elite" service of the police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Vula</span> Secret programme of the African National Congress

Operation Vula was a secret domestic programme of the African National Congress (ANC) during the final years of apartheid in South Africa. Initiated in 1986 at the ANC headquarters in Lusaka and launched in South Africa in 1988, its operatives infiltrated weapons and banned ANC leaders into the country, in order to establish an underground network linking domestic activist structures with the ANC in exile. It was responsible for facilitating the only direct line of communication between ANC headquarters and Nelson Mandela, who at the time was imprisoned and was discussing a negotiated settlement with the government on the ANC's behalf. The operation was disbanded in 1990, after its existence had been publicly revealed and eight of its leaders charged under the Internal Security Act with terrorism and plotting an armed insurrection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moe Shaik</span> South African spy and diplomat

Riaz "Moe" Shaik, also spelled Mo Shaik, is a South African civil servant, diplomat, businessman, and former intelligence operative who has been the South African High Commissioner to Canada since 2022. He is a former chief of the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee and a former director of the foreign intelligence wing of the State Security Agency, at that time still called the South African Secret Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Rabkin</span> South African activist (1948–1985)

David Rabkin was a South African anti-apartheid activist known for publishing subversive pamphlets. He served seven years of a ten-year sentence for his anti-apartheid activities. After his accidental death during military training in Angola, he received a hero's burial in Luanda.

Hermanus Gabriel Loots, also known by his nom de guerreJames Stuart, was a South African politician, businessman, and former anti-apartheid activist. A member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) since 1961, he is best known as the chairperson of MK's Stuart Commission, a 1984 internal inquiry that uncovered and condemned abuses by security personnel in MK camps.

Jeanette Eva Schoon was a South African anti-apartheid activist. She and her daughter, Katryn Schoon, were killed by letter bomb in June 1984 in an operation carried out by the Security Branch of the South African Police.

References

  1. ↑ Waugh, Esther. "I infiltrated ANC, says police spy", The Star, Johannesburg, 3 February 1989
  2. 1 2 "Olivia Forsyth takes refuge in British embassy in Luanda". South African History Online.
  3. ↑ Devereaux, Pat, "Williamson denies spy link with Olivia", Saturday Star, Johannesburg, 6 August 1988
  4. ↑ Harper, Clare. "Olivia worked for Foreign Affairs", The Star, Johannesburg, 29 December 1988
  5. ↑ McPherson, Vic. "Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission". justice.gov.za.
  6. ↑ Niddrie, David, "Into the Wilderness of Mirrors" – The Forsyth Saga, WIP March 1989.
  7. ↑ Adkins, Brett (26 October 2003). "Spy's confession may let all the spooks out". Independent Online.
  8. ↑ Raath, Jan and Hornsby, Michael. "Activist said to be Pretoria spy", The Times, 2 August 1988.
  9. 1 2 Kasrils, Ronnie. Armed and Dangerous: From Undercover Struggle to Freedom. Johannesburg, Jacana. 2013. p.190.
  10. ↑ Beeld, Johannesburg, 3 July 1997
  11. ↑ Hartley, Ray. "Probe on abuses at ANC camps told of Olivia Forsyth's detention", Business Day, Johannesburg, 10 June 1993.
  12. ↑ Kasrils, Ronnie. Armed and Dangerous: From Undercover Struggle to Freedom. Johannesburg, Jacana. 2013. p.210.
  13. ↑ Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 31 July 1988. " ‘ANC prisoner’ in embassy drama" [9] The Star, Johannesburg, 18 November 1988
  14. ↑ McIndoe, Hamish, "Kaunda is key to release of 'spy' Olivia", Sunday Times, 21 August 1988.
  15. ↑ Matisonn, John, "Angola holds ANC's little drummer girl", The Observer, Sunday 28 August 1988
  16. ↑ Thornycroft, Peta. "Angola puts a high rate on Olivia", Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 6 November 1988.
  17. ↑ "UK rejects Forsyth deal – report", Business Day, Johannesburg, 5 September 1988
  18. ↑ O'Flaherty, Michael, "My daughter's no spy", Daily Express, 18 November 1988
  19. ↑ Argus Foreign News Service, "'SA spy' Olivia Forsyth is 'expelled' from Angola", Argus,16 November 1988.
  20. ↑ The Independent, Friday 18 November 1988.
  21. ↑ "Spy Olivia back in SA once more". Sunday Times. Johannesburg. 1 January 1989.
  22. ↑ "source of information, it's just that you were at hand and we quite appreciate the fact that you were prepared to come and to present your testimony in quite a forthright way. Thank you very much for that, we do appreciate it. Thank you". justice.gov.za.
  23. ↑ Crary, David (3 February 1989). "Police identify British native as spy". Associated Press .
  24. ↑ "S. Africa Says British Woman Spied on ANC". The Star. Johannesburg. 2 February 1989.
  25. ↑ "S. Africa Says British Woman Spied on ANC". Los Angeles Times. 4 February 1989.
  26. ↑ "'Six' included in spy-swap bid", The Star, Johannesburg, 3 February 1989
  27. ↑ Perkins, Charis and Venter, Pieter "This is Joy, the second girl named as SA police agent", Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 5 February 1989.
  28. ↑ The New Nation, Johannesburg, 9 February 1989.
  29. ↑ October, Alicestine (4 September 2015). "'I was trying to do the right thing' – former apartheid spy Olivia Forsyth". City Press . Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  30. ↑ de Wet, Phillip (31 July 2015). "Scant sauce in 'honeypot' memoir". Mail & Guardian . Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  31. ↑ Forsyth, Olivia (14 August 2015). "'Sauce' for the gander a disgrace to their gender". Mail & Guardian . Retrieved 4 September 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.