Undercover with Mandela’s Spies: The Story of the Boy who Crossed the Square

by Bradley Steyn, Mark Fine

Bradley Steyn’s life is a perfect example of how fact can be stranger than fiction, as Undercover with Mandela’s Spies shows. The memoir charts Steyn’s life – from the deeply traumatic experience of witnessing the Strijdom Square massacre in 1988 that leaves him with a severe case of PTSD, to being recruited by the underground ANC’s Department of Intelligence and Security (DIS). Written with sweltering clarity, Steyn details the dark and dangerous world of espionage, guns and the extremes both the apartheid government and the ANC went to to achieve their goals.

This astonishing true-life thriller provides a thorough account of one man’s explosive experiences during a highly unstable period in South Africa’s history and reveals for the first time some of the dirty secrets of a dirty war. Beset with all the makings of a spy blockbuster, Steyn’s every day with the Security Branch included surveillance, psychoactive drugs to weaken targets, war tactics, shootings and death. While navigating this dangerous world, Steyn was also battling PTSD and one can only imagine how the violent nature of this covert world impacted him.

He ends up being recruited by MK and used to infiltrate the crazed right-wing whose mission is to de stabilise a South Africa on the brink of peace.

With these forces pushing the nation toward a bloody race war, will his time run out before they discover he is working for Mandela’s spies? Undercover with Mandela’s Spies captures the horror of this war for freedom and the resilience of the men and women who fought for our liberation. This book shows just how close to civil war we were.

Genres: Nonfiction

265 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2019

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although not perfectly written, this book is a fascinating memoir of a white Afrikaner who, as a teenager in 1988, was caught up in the mayhem and bloodshed on Strijdom Square in Pretoria when a crazed white racist opened fire on innocent black people while deliberately passing the teenager over as he was white.

The experience was catastrophically traumatic for him and he subsequently suffered (and it seems still does) severe PTSD that rendered him prone to violence and engendered an affinity with a world of espionage and spying that began with an involvement with the Cape Town underworld, slid into cooperation with the Special Branch enforcers of apartheid, then switched again, along with the realization of how he had been brainwashed by the racist, apartheid establishment, to collaboration with the DIS (intelligence and security branch) of the ANC who he subsequently joined. His activities spanned the transition from an apartheid state to democracy covering the furious undercover operations that took place of both sides as each jockeyed for advantage in the new dispensation.

The plot moves quickly and there are many cat and mouse moments that make it more like a spy thriller than a memoir. I really enjoyed it but I suspect living through the time of the events described in this book has made it more relevant to me than it might be to non-South African readers. Still, it is a very good read.

[Eric J. Gates · Rating 5 out of 5]

To describe ‘Undercover with Mandela’s Spies’ by Bradley Steyn and Mark Fine as a dramatized autobiography would be to do it a grave injustice. Co-author Steyn’s experiences are far more intense than any fictionalized retouching could ever produce. I might also say that I had the sense the events in which he participated, willingly or otherwise, were probably understated in the book. From the opening account of a white extremist gunning down innocents in Strijdom Square in Pretoria in 1988, told from the viewpoint of a fifteen-year old Steyn who was almost a victim too as he rushed to help one of the twenty-four dead or injured, the narrative grabs your attention. The hand of master storyteller Mark Fine is evident throughout as the tortuous and complex events of the apartheid era in South Africa are related in such a way, the reader can comprehend the circumstances as though living through those times. Steyn’s emotions, ably conveyed in unassuming fashion throughout, serve to propel the reader forward.

For those of us who only experienced the apartheid period as occasional snippets on our TV news stations or through short newspaper accounts, I would strongly recommend the reading of this book. Steyn, now suffering from PTSD as a result of his personal experience in the Strijdom Square massacre, tells how he went from being part of the apartheid security apparatus to becoming an undercover resource for the African National Congress as it fought against the racially-inspired government system.

Although this detailed account of many of the events leading to the eventual election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s President in 1994 has an immense historic value, Steyn and Fine’s telling is far more important today as a testimony to the many victims of that particular brutal era in South Africa.

Once again I unhesitatingly recommend reading this account to all, and especially to today’s youth worldwide, so that the horrendous errors of the past are not repeated today.

[Monika Van Zyl · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an astounding read!

A must read for any South African. Not only is this a fast paced and thrilling story but an unbelievable part of history.

[Mark Fine · Rating 5 out of 5]

THREE LIFE-STORIES OF TRYING TIMES

By Khulu Mbatha

Every individual has a unique story to tell about herself or himself or his or her people, about encounters in life and lived experiences. When writing and doing research work on yourself. You start organising your thoughts in a certain way, to allow you to focus, just like any other writing.
But this time, you confront yourself as an object to deal with. The ‘I’, the ‘subject’, is approached differently, it is about self-interrogation, a cross-examination and research on yourself and your actions and thoughts. You become the ‘object’.

It’s sort of a moral and ethical test too because you try to reveal what you think is important weighing it against other things you want to tell the readers. You are judging yourself: should I tell this or not? Having being involved in the struggle becomes more challenging. But, it is worse if you were involved in what is generally known as intelligence work and/or espionage over your enemy. We know the price to pay is very high if you ever get caught.

During the first part of the three weeks of Covid-19 lockdown, in between the virtual video conferences and actually the struggle to download the Meet App or Zooming App, I finished reading three books at the same time. These were written by more than friends, but comrades of mine.
Each book is unique. These are real-life thrillers in their own right, with adventures, suspense, fast action, disappearances and brutal murders. The experiences we never talk about.

1. “UNDERCOVER WITH MANDELA’S SPIES – The Story of the Boy Who Crossed the Square", an account of how he went from apartheid Security Branch operative to spying for the ANC…
This one opens with a real murder, the massacre on Strijdom Square. Bradley Steyn was a 17-year-old white schoolboy and on one afternoon in November 1988, he was thrown in the middle of a theatre of death and a real State Theatre in Pretoria. The real State Theatre, was where his mother worked and he was from school to join her and then leave for home.

His skin colour saved his life from the barrel of a gun that spit fire only directed at black people. He was even able to give help to one of the black victims. This is perhaps one of the catalysts that would change his life forever.

Many years later after working within the apartheid machinery, he is recruited by ANC comrades who dared to confront the enemy where it matters most, its security operations, mechanisations and personnel. Happening just on the eve of Mandela’s inauguration, the real drama and suspense ensue.

Very few, even within the ANC and democratic forces, knew that there was a serious plot between the state's military intelligence and third forces to derail the inauguration in 1994 and possibly plunge the country into a racial war.

The success of this mission relied heavily on Bradley Steyn, Neil De Beer, the man who recruited Steyn into the Special Branch, on the one side, and Andre Lincoln and Jeremy Vearey (then ANC foot-soldiers who ‘turned’ Steyn and are currently generals in SAPS).
It’s a book, a few pages into it, you just want to keep reading to the end. But to remove the thrill, I paused and read the other books.

As Thandi Lujabe-Rankoe says about the book, “The South African story needs to be told in all its diversity and complexity…”

I must add the superb role of Joe Nhlanhla, the ANC’s security man who sanctioned all the steps taken to make sure the four succeeded, the inauguration takes place and allow the transition to happen.

UNDERCOVER WITH MANDELA’S SPIES was published by Jacana in 2019.

2. THE ANC SPY BIBLE
Another real-life thriller and as Gavin Evans added, “…but too much left unsaid”.
The drama begins just five years before the ANC was unbanned, the man is only known in the book as “The Nightingale”, walked into the optometry shop of Moe Shaik in Durban. He was white, young and a security police. He was gambling with his life by offering to work for the ANC underground.

From that day on, it was batches and batches of documents that came Moe’s way and were taken out of the country and given directly to ANC President OR Tambo, Mac Maharaj and Joe Slovo. The authenticity of the documents made OR Tambo to codename them, ‘The Bible’. It is this work that later gave space to Operation Vula, involving Sphiwe Nyanda among others, and other operatives in the underground. Partly, it also helped to mobilise ANC forces and streamlined their efforts and effectiveness within the enemy’s territory.

All this was at a price of detention and torture for the whole Shaik family – mother, father and all the brothers. This was the case for many South African families, big or small, black, coloured, Indian or white, that were involved in the struggle against apartheid. There are many players in the book, some are still alive and many have since departed to the other world – may their souls rest in peace. There are some who paid heavily with their lives for participating in these operations of ‘The Nightingale’. They were brutally tortured, murdered and buried in unnamed graves in no man's land, between Swaziland and South Africa.

Thanks partly to the TRC, some families got to know what happened to their loved ones. But not all families. There are matters that Moe Shaik’s book sharply raises throughout the book. I must say that they keep coming in all new books that are written by cadres of the struggle. One of them is the question of torture. What does one do in the hands of the enemy when subjected to torture, both physical and mental? All the brothers had been detained and tortured at various stages of the operations. When Moe was released after many months of a Section 29 detention and after the death of the mother who raised him and his brothers, he was taken to her grave.

“The first thing I did on release was to visit Kaye’s grave with my brothers. We took our time to say our farewells to her. What we had endured individually in detention remained unspoken. Just as we had dealt with the trauma of Rabia’s [their biological mother, KM] leaving and the pain of Kaye’s passing, we handled our experiences of detention in some kind of unspoken family ritual: we buried our trauma behind our individual walls.

I lingered at the graveside a little longer than the others. I needed to tell Kaye that I loved her dearly. I wanted to apologise for the way life had turned out. But beyond this I had to share a secret with her knowing that the dead kept all secrets. I told her that detention took you to a place that tested your strength and your capacity for endurance. I told her it had left me in a desolate, lonely void of darkness and fear. Even though I had survived, I knew I was damaged by the experience. I needed her help to be whole again. I felt inadequate before the demands of the revolution, that the burden of survival was too costly.”

THE ANC SPY BIBLE was published by Tafelberg in 2020.

3. THE WAUCHOPES Generational Activism
“From Rev Isaac W. Dyobha Wauchope SS Mendi’s death drill to Struggle Stalwart Joyce Nombuyiselo KALAOTE as an activist and military recruiter. Unbeknown to the family, the heroic actions of their patriarch, Reverend Isaac Williams Dyobha Wauchope, legendary hero from the 1917 SS Mendi troopship, when challenging and engaging the early 20th century Cape colonialists, would pave the path of political activism for many future Wauchope generations.

His descendant, Joyce Kalaote, was a political activist, a struggle heroine, and one of the towering BCM figures during the 1970s against the system of apartheid. A nurse by profession, she thrust herself into civic struggles, and as an active community member rallied brave women to close ranks in support and in defence of the 16 June 1976 students following the outbreak of nationwide uprisings. But she was not alone; the members of her entire family were political activists.

Her nephew, George Mpapa Wauchope, was described as a soldier of justice and, after having enrolled at the University of Fort Hare in 1970, joined the South African Students Organisation (SASO). Fort Hare sharpened his political interest, and this is where this remarkable figure emerged with an unwavering desire to take on the system on its illegitimate rule over the black majority. Being a prominent exponent of the philosophy of Black Consciousness, his extraordinary activism became the family’s catalyst and the entire Wauchope family becomes involved in the struggle for national liberation. This fascinating read has been assembled with a wonderful collection of material, photographs, documents, and newspaper cuttings arranged to illustrate Joyce’s life and her family. To be able to see the people and places involved in the events brings Joyce to life in a way that the written word alone struggles to accomplish.”

I must confess up front that this faithful story being told here with such profound affection, also touches deep in me, because most of the characters involved were my peers, that I lived with and occupied the same space where this theatre of struggle takes place. We grew up together and came to know each other so well, we were like one huge family. The space is Dlamini, Senaoane, Chiawelo, Mapetla, Phiri, Molapo, Rockville and Pimville. The period is before June 16, 1976.

The townships border on one another and are separated by streets only. Although there are different languages involved – IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Tshivenda, etc. are spoken, we share schools, from lower to higher primary, from secondary to high schools. We are one people.
The book gives an in-depth background of the Wauchope family tree, from Rev Isaac Dyobha Wauchope to the students’ uprising of June 16, 1976. It then ventures into a theme that is rarely discussed among us – the so-called black on black violence fuelled by the apartheid security forces… involving the UDF and AZAPO organisations.

The book is written by Natalia Sifuba, born Natalia Kalaote, as her mother Joyce Nombuyiselo Wauchope was married to Knox Molefe Kalaote. Natalia Sifuba is someone who I used to carry on my shoulders. Her lovely siblings and cousins from the Wauchope family, Jenny, Kuku (George Wauchope’s younger sister who passed away in exile Tanzania) and Sindi were like my younger sisters.

I was a regular visitor to the family and used to teach them ballroom dancing at the social club in Dlamini – those were the days before the uprisings. When I came to Sekano-Ntoane High School, George Wauchope with Ishmael Mkhabela, Lybon Mabasa, and others were my seniors. I started Form One with the former mayor of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo, Duma Ndlovu (the creator of Muvhango), and many others. I must be circumspect with some details here.

I do want to explain why this book is important to read. It is the first of its kind, because of the details relating to the internecine war. The brutality that was involved is hard to contemplate. I must congratulate Natalia, we called her ‘Nat��, for daring to deal with this aspect as part of our past. So much has been said about the black on black violence that engrossed the townships. But it has been difficult to talk about it. There is nothing that disturbed us like the news we used to receive while in exile about these skirmishes. Natalia was in exile herself.

We were from the same townships that were involved in the fights. We knew the people. We asked ourselves what was really happening, without really getting answers. Don’t our people see that they are being played against each other by the ‘system’? That’s how we referred to apartheid mechanisations. Because the Wauchope family was at the forefront and centre of the struggle, including Natalia’s mother Joyce, her aunt, Ethel (George’s mother and elder sister to Joyce), George and all the siblings, Natalia is able to take us through what was happening by laying down all the bare facts in this book.

Clearly, the family was targeted by the ‘system’ which spread disinformation and lies to fuel the fires. There is nothing disturbing like the two incidents that Natalia captures with such precision, as if it all happened yesterday. The first one, is the burial of a young boy in the neighbourhood of the Wauchopes who was killed during the clashes. The funeral procession was stopped, the coffin was pulled out of the hearse and doused with petrol. Her mom and aunt fought fiercely to stop the flames and they proceeded to go and bury. The second one, is the petrol-bombing of the family house in Dlamini, which ultimately led to the death of her aunt, Ethel.

Through the underground structures, Joyce and Ethel recruited and sent many young men and women into exile. Nat and Kuku were with the ANC in exile. Unfortunately, Kuku died in 1989 at SOMAFCO, Tanzania and her brother, George, succumbed to death in the UK in 2011.
Once again a good and simple read. Natalia Sifuba succeeded to leave us with no doubt that the black on black violence, was a creation of the architects of ‘divide and rule’.

THE WAUCHOPES Generational Activism published by Kwarts Publishers 1n 2019.

4. CONCLUSION
In real life THE ANC SPY BIBLE plays itself out before the UNDERCOVER WITH MANDELA’S SPIES.
I commend all three authors for the boldness and authenticity by which they related their life stories. All three books reflect on the huge and influential role the intelligence operatives and security establishments, both in the police and the military, had in politics under apartheid. They were the real power behind the politics of the day, more so during the eras of PW Botha and De Klerk.

The wars against Angola and intrusions into other neighbouring states, especially, the kidnappings of people from these states, the tortures and killings like it happened in Vlakplaas, the venue that served as the headquarters of the South African Police counterinsurgency unit C10, the war waged against the people in the townships under numerous states of emergency, all these were signs of power under apartheid.

This brings into question the relationship between political power and intelligence services in the post-apartheid era. While our constitution is clear about this, the challenge though, especially in the recent past, has been the role of the intelligence services and security operatives in assisting the government to fulfill its obligations towards the process of nation-building.

In these three books, there are many freedom fighters and cadres that laid down their lives for our freedom and some are still alive. They have never found recognition anywhere in our nation, irrespective of their political affiliations.

All three books have the potential to make good motion pictures and capture the risks and the drama involved.

Dr Khulu Mbatha is a diplomat, author, columnist, and current advisor to South AfricanPresident Cyril Ramaphosa. The ideas and comments expressed in this piece are all his.

[Chris Avant-Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye opening look into the murky underworld of both sides of the national intelligence operations in South Africa. The narrative is pacy, the content straight out of a spy novel. What got to me about this book is the fragility and humanity of the protagonist. If you are curious about the world of Spies and want an insight into the national security apparatus, this is the book for you

[Coreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book tells another side of the whole apartheid era pre Nelson Mandela. Being a so called "born free" I dont have a personal opinion regarding that time but to read about all the stuff going on behind the curtains and underground left me speechless as it is the stuff you usually just see in movies or so. It is not a book for everyone especially if you were one of the young men fighting on the border war. This will either infuriate you or leave you wondering what it all actually was for.

As for the writing style and spelling, I did not enjoy it as much because I stuggled a lot to figure out at what point in the time line we are exactly. There is a lot of jumping back and forth between memories without any clear indocation that it is actually a memory from his way past or n memory forming part of their current situation.

[Gareth Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

The account of a white Afrikaans teenager caught up in the Strijdom Square massacre of the 1980s and his journey through the Cape Town underworld to eventually being recruited by the ANC to infiltrate the Apartheid groups.

Not a bad read but the constant jumping around made it difficult to follow the story at times.

From our time in SA, I know it’s history and present is difficult. While it is a good thing the evils of apartheid are in the past, this book portrayed the other side as the goodies. Maybe it’s a bit more complicated than that.

[Mumtaz Moosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I was unsure of this book, but the story is gripping and full of details that we as ordinary citizens may have never knew.

The story from a young boy Bradley takes you into moments that has shaped and changed his life.

As the story progresses it becomes an explosive story filled with details that has shaped the freedom of SA.

Loved this book and would highly recommend.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book every South African should read.
And perhaps every world citizen too (mostly looking at you U.S).
It made me feel a plethora of emotions, embarrassment, shame and regret (not entirely sure about regret as I was only born in 1984 and wasn't able to do much, but I can do so much going forward. I can continue to raise my child in such a way that should this ever happen again, again hi Maga-supporters, she will hopefully do what's right. I can also educate her so that she can become an ally. But then it also made me feel proud about the South Africa that I live in. That there are people who think like I do, and who value humanity.

[Gerald Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved reading this book. Hope to have a good chat with the author if i ever get to see him!

[Randolph Breschini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting…a great read🙏🏻

[Bradley Steyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just wanted to thank you for your rating and reviews, Mark and I greatly appreciate it.

Many Thanks
Bradley Steyn
Author

Bradley.steyn@gmail.com