3 June 1975
We have recently received certain documents which, taken together, reveal high-level military collaboration between South Africa and several Western Powers. The documents reveal that the NATO defence code is available to the Pretoria regime and has been utilised to code the equipment and spares of its new military communications system known as Project Advokaat. In view of the importance of this information, I am enclosing a memorandum, together with copies of the relevant documents.
This evidence adds substance to our warnings since 1969-1970 that South Africa was being steadily integrated into the over-all Western defence system despite official statements to the contrary from the major Western Powers.
It is easier to understand, in the light of this evidence, why countries like Britain and the United States of America which claim to abide by the United Nations arms embargo still feel it necessary to oppose a mandatory arms embargo.
We also have considerable evidence of South African officials concerned with defence matters visiting a number of Western countries in the recent past to discuss other military projects. We shall send you a more detailed document with further evidence very shortly.
We trust that the Special Committee will urgently take appropriate action in the light of this new evidence.
Memorandum concerning collaboration of NATO member States with South Africa in the Advokaat military communications system
The South African regime has established at Silvermine, close to the Simonstown Naval Base, the headquarters of a modern and highly advanced communications system called Project Advokaat. This system is now operational, although further work on it is still in progress.
Project Advokaat is just one of a series of projects undertaken by the Pretoria regime to expand its defence role in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans and promote a closer military alliance with the major Western Powers.
When Dr. C.P. Mulder, South African Minister of Information, visited France during April 1975, he said: "Our naval base at Simonstown is to have its berthing facilities doubled. And far from Simonstown we have built a sophisticated multi-million franc maritime communications headquarters that provides up-to-the-minute information on all maritime traffic from the Cape to North America, South America, the South Pole region, and India."(2)
Project Advokaat has a number of units on which the movements of ships and other craft are graphically represented on a map of the region covered by it - and this includes not only the ocean area mentioned by Dr. Mulder but also virtually the entire African continent.
The Pretoria regime claims that pioneer work was done in South Africa towards the development and manufacture of the communications system. However, we have been aware of the collaboration of a number of Western companies in helping to establish the system.
Documents which we have recently received expose the high level of involvement of companies in several NATO countries in developing the Advokaat system.
Even more serious is the fact that NATO and several of its members have been directly engaged in the planning and development of this system which is directly linked to NATO's interest and activity outside its defined regional area.
We also knew that the Federal Republic of Germany was directly involved in this system; it is public knowledge that certain German companies played a major role in helping to develop this system - AEC-Telefunken, Siemens and MAN.
The attached documents reveal clearly that:
NATO has strongly denied that it has any links with South Africa, individual members of that alliance have repeatedly stated that NATO had no dealings whatsoever with South Africa and, in any case, it falls outside the NATO Treaty area. With the exception of France, all other NATO members mentioned above claim to operate an effective arms embargo against South Africa in compliance with decisions of the United Nations Security Council. The role of France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Britain and the United States may not surprise many people in view of the relationships these countries enjoy with South Africa but the revelations regarding the Netherlands and Denmark will not only shock public opinion in those countries but also raise questions about the power of the NATO alliance to undermine established national policies. The documents reveal defence relationships of these countries with South Africa and make it vital for us to examine the serious moves in Western defence circles to treat Simonstown as a NATO base. This is certainly South Africa's objective which is reflected in recent advertisements placed by its embassies in the Western press which ask: "Could an organisation like NATO have a base in Simonstown, South Africa?"
The South African regime has for long sought to secure its integration into the over-all Western defence system. Recently we have witnessed strong moves in the United States and certain other NATO countries to have closer defence ties with the apartheid regime. The solidarity of the major Western Powers with South Africa was confirmed by the use of the triple veto last year by Britain, France and the United States of America to protect the Pretoria regime from being expelled as a member of the United Nations. South Africa continues to defy the world community in the sure knowledge that it has very powerful external allies.
Last September the South African Defence Minister told the South African Parliament with regard to the Cape sea route: "It is a source of great joy to me that I am able to inform this House now that tremendous progress has been made in this sphere during the past few months. This includes purchases as well as the acquisition of licences and knowledge in respect of these matters which relate in particular to the surveillance and defence of our coast and the sea route round the Cape... it would be irresponsible to furnish any particulars of these matters. And therefore I now want to make an earnest appeal to our newspapers not to start any speculation in this regard, for speculations are the greatest evil we have to contend with."(3)
The attached documents reveal the need for secrecy on the part of the South African regime and all the collaborators in this system.
The documents show that the equipment section of the German Defence Ministry (Materialanst der Bundeswehr) was directly engaged in the development and construction of Advokaat system. They also detail the NATO codes given to equipment and spare parts originating from Britain, the United States of America, France, Denmark and the Netherlands - the individual NATO sheets refer to components which originate from those countries.(4)
(1) UN document A/AC.ll5/L.408
(2) South African Digest, Pretoria, April 11, 1975, p. 3
(3) House of Assembly Debates (Hansard), September 10, 1974, col. 2544