Background
Hendrik van den Bergh was born on 1915, at Vredefort, 75 miles south-west of Johannesburg.
Hendrik van den Bergh was born on 1915, at Vredefort, 75 miles south-west of Johannesburg.
Educated at Vredefort High School, where he matriculated in 1933, he joined the Police Force as a constable in 1934.
His close association with Prime Minister Vorster dates from their internment together at Koffiefontein during the Second World War. Although he denied membership of the pro-Nazi Ossewabradwag (Oxwagon Guard) Van Den Bergh was locked away for three years.
Promotion in the Police Force was slow until 1963 when he was gazetted from captain to lieutenant-colonel to head the Security Branch. Within six months he had made a big reputation by breaking up the “Rivonia Conspiracy” which brought a group of “plotters against the State” headed by Nelson Mandela, the African Nationalist leader, to trial in October 1963.
This success gave him a free hand to crush subversion which earned him the title of “Architect of the clean-up of the Communists”. By June 1964 he had risen to brigadier and two years later reached the rank of lieutenant-general. He expanded the Security Branch and made it a highly modernised unit operating not only in South Africa but in European countries also. It gave him increasingly close contact with Vorster and allowed him to terrorise “terrorists”. Unworried by accusations of interference in political responsibilities, he has justified his actions by insisting that Communism has to be countered by all available weapons.
Soon after Vorster gave him full powers to run BOSS the way he wanted. Justice H. J. Potgieter made an investigation of the security services and recommended restrictions. His report, delivered in August but only made public in parts in February 1972, led to legislation on the scope of BOSS.
A new Security Council was brought into being with the Prime Minister as chairman, the role of BOSS was redefined, but there was no curtailment of the vast powers of the General with his telephone tapping and squads of agents able to knock on doors and detain suspects without trial in the name of suppressing subversion.
After the Prime Minister the most powerful man in South Africa. Able to arrest and detain people without trial, a law unto himself, and free to act with responsibility directly to the Prime Minister as special adviser on security to him, this 6ft 5in general casts a long shadow over the normal legal system. From captain to general in the Police Force within eight years-a rare achievement he quickly established his authority regardless of criticism in the Press of his crude methods in an all-out campaign against “moral sabotage”. His strengthened position accounted for a record £3.56 million being allocated in the 1972-3 budget for the secret services—£2.75 million being for the Prime Minister’s special account which finances BOSS (Bureau of State Security).