South African Bureau of State Security

The South African Bureau for State Security (incorrectly given the abbreviation B.O.S.S. by journalists, Afrikaans: Buro vir Staatsveiligheid) was established in 1969 and replaced by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in 1980. The Bureau's job was to monitor national security. It was headed by Hendrik van den Bergh. The Bureau is perhaps most infamous for its involvement in the Information Scandal or Muldergate Scandal, when South African Government funds were used to establish a pro-National Party English language newspaper, The Citizen. This scandal was the main reason for its replacement in 1980.

During the middle of 1968, the South African cabinet approved the implementation of a centralised security service and on 28 August of the same year, General Hendrik van den Bergh was instructed to start planning the new organisation. On the 1 October 1968, Lieutenant-General Hendrik van den Bergh, Deputy Police Commissioner and Head of the Security Branch, was promoted to General and then appointed as Security Advisor to Prime Minister John Vorster. Attached to the Prime Minister office, he would be in command all security and intelligence chiefs in the country including the military, and reported only to Vorster.

By March 1969, the skeleton of a new security service begun to emerge with the release of the expenditures for 1969/70 when R5,320,500 was allocated to the secret services, a 188 percent increase over the previous year with R4,063,000 allocated to the Prime Minister's office and Van den Bergh. Military Intelligence's (MI) budget was reduced from R830,000 the previous year to a R39,000 a which would lead to continuous struggle for power between MI and BOSS throughout the seventies.

On 13 May 1969, Minister of the Interior S.L. Muller introduced the framework of the new service in the Public Service Amendment Bill which he said was responsible for co-ordination and would draw personnel from other security and intelligence organisations. It outlined the control of the Bureau for State Security would rest with Prime Minister and that the civil service Public Service Commission would have no control over it powers, functions and duties. A Government Notice No. 808 on 16 May 1969 announced the Bureau for State Security's formation and came into being retrospectively on the 1 May as a department under the Prime Minister. BOSS's function was stated as investigating matters of state security, collect and evaluate any information received and distribute the analysis when necessary throughout the government and secondly but more ambiguously, perform other functions and responsibilities when required.

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