Special Report Transcript Episode 71, Section 5, Time 49:09

From late-1982 and well into 1983 he’d passed top secret information from the South African military to their sworn enemy, the ANC. // Some part of the information which I conveyed to the ANC ultimately landed up on the president of Mozambique’s desk. It appears that the president of Mozambique, through whatever processes I’m not sure of them, decided to use that information not to militarily hit the bases concerned, the RENAMO bases or to expose South Africa in some way, but instead to open negotiations with South Africa, which negotiations ultimately lead to the Nkomati Accord. So I think what happened was that when Mozambique opened these negotiations with South Africa they confronted South Africa with a list of information, militarily accurate information with map coordinates and names and whatever else, details of resupplies, whatever. South Africa found it undeniable, but as soon as I had that information they could come and get me, because once they knew that there was a leak in that unit I was sticking out like a sore thumb. I must say, there was part of me that was quite glad that the whole thing was over because there’s a kind of schizophrenia which develops in that you’re living two lives, or more. When you’re living the life of a spy, you tend to back off from being forthright or from being straightforward or from being just honest. And when you do that for year after year I think you probably get damaged and you probably start becoming a devious person intrinsically and I won’t recommend it. But I was effectively in operation for only just over a year and that still took me some recovering from, because I was hiding my true nature from my Defence Force employers as deeply as I could. I was hiding from the white left just what I was doing. I was hiding what I was doing from my own family. You know you are playing with bonds of confidence and bonds of trust in that case, which you shouldn’t play with easily. So it was a good cause, it was important to do, it was worthwhile doing. But it wasn’t easy to live, and I am very glad not to be a spy now.

Notes: Roland Hunter

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