See No Evil

by Michael Ridpath

  ‘Were you able to find out anything when you were let out?’

  ‘I didn’t bother,’ George said, looking uncomfortable. ‘I had become disillusioned with being a journalist in South Africa. I decided I could do more good reporting on the country from abroad. So I moved to London and became the South Africa correspondent for a newspaper there. I never did dig into Martha’s death. And neither did her husband.’

  ‘Does that surprise you?’

  ‘Yes, frankly,’ George said. ‘When the TRC was set up I expected Cornelius to ask for Martha’s death to be investigated, but he didn’t. It would have been a high-profile case. They might well have got to the bottom of it.’

  ‘Cornelius says it’s because the case would have been so prominent that he didn’t want to stir things up again.’

  George shrugged.

  ‘Did Martha mention the Laagerbond to you before she died?’

  ‘Yes, as a matter of fact she did. It was the first time I’d heard the name.’

  Calder felt his heartbeat quicken. He was getting somewhere.

  ‘It was the week before she died. She was quite agitated by then, about the Mail and about Cornelius. But we had lunch in Greenmarket Square, I can still remember it. She started off by asking me about Muldergate.’

  ‘Muldergate?’

  ‘It was a big scandal here in 1978. You’ve never heard of it?’

  Calder shook his head.

  ‘Too young,’ George said. ‘It was a big deal. It destroyed the career of Connie Mulder, who had been a shoo-in to succeed Vorster as prime minister, and left the door open for P. W. Botha to take over.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘A man called Eschel Rhoodie at the Department of Information diverted lots of government funds to set up newspapers in this country and to acquire media abroad. The idea was to influence the way South Africa was perceived at home and abroad, to put across the government’s point of view. They bought a couple of magazines in Europe and tried to buy the Washington Star. The money was diverted illegally and the press found out. The Mail helped break the story. Connie Mulder, who was then Minister of the Interior, Nico Diederichs the Finance Minister and General van den Bergh, the head of the secret service, were behind the whole thing. Vorster was forced to resign, and P. W. Botha beat Connie Mulder in a leadership election to succeed him. The irony is that during the 1980s Botha diverted much larger sums into a secret nuclear and chemical weapons buying programme. But at the time of the scandal, he seemed like a relative liberal. Even I was fooled for a couple of years.

  ‘Martha knew in general terms what had happened, but she had all kinds of detailed questions about the affair. She was clearly excited about something, and what I was telling her was just making her more excited. Then she asked me if I had heard of the Laagerbond. I told her I hadn’t. I asked her what she was up to, and she said she would tell me, possibly very soon. She said it was something big, something I would want to write about. She said she could trust me to get the story out, however difficult it was.’

  ‘You mentioned that that was the first you heard of the Laagerbond. You heard more later?’

  ‘Yes. Not much, just rumours. You know about the Broederbond?’

  ‘Only a little. Tell me.’

  ‘The Broederbond is a secret society set up after the First World War to further the cause of Afrikaner culture in South Africa. Of course, when it was founded the main threat was from the white English-speaking South Africans. But it was the Broederbond that developed the concept of apartheid; all the important members of government were in it and by the 1980s there were at least 10,000 members. It was the Afrikaner establishment. It became a kind of government think-tank; most of the policies of the National Party were dreamed up by Broederbond committees.

  ‘Now, the rumour is that the Laagerbond is some kind of ultra-secret cell within the Broederbond itself. It has a limited membership and it has power. Power over what, no one knows. Conspiracy theorists love it, but no one has been able to turn up any hard evidence. No one is even sure who any of the members are, although there seems to be some agreement on the founder.’

  ‘Who was that?’

  ‘Dr Nico Diederichs. He was Minister of Finance in the seventies and then state president. He was an important Broederbonder who studied in Nazi Germany in the thirties. He died in 1977 but apparently the Laagerbond still exists. A friend of mine tried to write an article on it a couple of years ago, but ran into a brick wall at every turn.’

  ‘Any idea what the purpose of the organization is?’

  ‘None.’

  ‘I read a reference to it from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission records, in which it mentioned that a Colonel Retief was a member.’

  ‘Colonel Retief? That wouldn’t surprise me. He was one of South Africa’s spymasters during the seventies and eighties. He was probably involved in recruiting Beatrice Pienaar. A useful man to have as a member.’

  ‘What about the Broederbond? Does that still exist?’

  ‘After a fashion.’ George smiled. ‘It’s changed its name to the Afrikanerbond. It’s not secret any more, it even has its own website, and it seems pretty harmless. Its aims are to promote Christianity and the Afrikaner way of life.’

  ‘Just before she died, Martha wrote a letter to her mother saying that she had written some notes in a page in her diary marked “Laagerbond”. Caroline saw her copying something down from a briefcase belonging to one of two men who visited Cornelius at their house. One of these men was called Andries Visser. He had a limp. Do you know him?’

  George sucked on his pipe for a moment. ‘There was an Andries Visser who was a senior bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance. He had a limp.’ The eyebrows waggled. ‘Actually, he was a protégé of Nico Diederichs, if I’m not mistaken. He was always influential, but kept himself in the background. He’s almost certainly retired now, I haven’t heard anything about him for years.’

  ‘So he could be a member of the Laagerbond?’

  ‘He could well be,’ said George. ‘And the other man?’

  ‘Caroline couldn’t remember his name. She said he had a white beard and sticking-out ears. That’s not much of a description to go on, I know.’

  ‘It’s enough,’ said George. ‘That will be Professor Daniel Havenga. He was a friend of Cornelius, and Martha for that matter. A professor of journalism at Stellenbosch University. And the man who recommended Beatrice Pienaar to Cornelius.’

  ‘Another member of the Laagerbond?’

  ‘Who knows?’ said George. ‘You say they were visiting Cornelius at Hondehoek?’

  ‘Yes. Caroline says that her mother was agitated by what she had read, and scared. Martha’s letter mentioned a page in her diary marked “Operation Drommedaris”. Any idea what that might be?’

  George shook his head.

  They sat in silence, both of them assessing the new information, making connections. Calder glanced at the older man. ‘Were they planning another Muldergate, do you think?’

  George drew on his pipe, mulling the idea over. ‘It’s certainly possible,’ he said eventually. ‘Visser could have organized the finance. Havenga was an expert on the media. The Laagerbond was set up by Diederichs who was intimately involved in the first scandal. He was long dead by 1988, but his protégé could have carried on his work.’

  ‘Remember Cornelius was in the middle of trying to take over the Herald in London.’

  ‘And he was making all those US acquisitions.’

  ‘But if Muldergate was such a disaster, why would the Laagerbond risk another scandal ten years on?’ Calder asked.

  ‘South Africa had changed by 1988,’ George said. ‘Things were more repressive: after three years of a state of emergency the government had much more of a grip of things. During the original scandal Eschel Rhoodie behaved like an international playboy: he charged apartments and boondoggles to the Seychelles to his expenses, and it was that as much as anything else that brought him do
wn. Visser and Havenga could have learned from his mistakes. If the Laagerbond was set up as a secret cell within the establishment but not actually within government, it might be very difficult to find any trace of its actions. When Rhoodie eventually talked, he hinted that there was much more going on that he couldn’t disclose. Perhaps there was.’

  ‘But wouldn’t the ANC have found out about this when they came to power in 1994?’ Calder asked.

  ‘Not necessarily,’ George said. ‘The security establishment were diligent in destroying evidence. Some of it came out during the TRC a few years later; a whole new government department that no one had heard about called the Directorate of Covert Collection was discovered then, for example. But that was just a glimpse; a lot more is still hidden. There were rumours that Diederichs stashed significant sums from the sale of gold bullion in Switzerland. By the 1980s the defence budget had ballooned to many billions of dollars. Under the Defence Special Account Act this was protected from public scrutiny, so it was the source of funds for the purchase of weapons secrets from the likes of Israel and Pakistan. Why not for buying up foreign media?’

  ‘And the Laagerbond lives on?’

  ‘That’s the beauty of it,’ George said. ‘By then many Afrikaner nationalists realized that apartheid’s days were numbered. But because it’s not part of the government the Laagerbond can carry on supporting the Afrikaner cause after the fall of the regime.’ George puffed hard at his pipe. He frowned. ‘I can see why in many ways Cornelius would be the perfect person for these people to back. He’s really South Africa’s only international media entrepreneur. But I can’t see why they would think he would listen to them. He was always a major thorn in the side of apartheid, not a supporter.’

  ‘I get the impression he was re-evaluating his views on South Africa,’ Calder said. ‘And if the Beatrice Pienaar woman was planted by the Laagerbond, perhaps she might have persuaded him to go along with them.’

  George shook his head. ‘You’re right, he was changing. But although I didn’t like the man he was becoming, I still can’t believe he would take their money. Presumably they wanted him to toe the apartheid line once he had bought all these newspapers. I haven’t seen much evidence of that.’

  ‘How do his papers cover South Africa?’ Calder said.

  ‘Objectively, from what I can tell. I haven’t noticed any bias. I don’t think he takes much of a personal interest in South African coverage. If he was funded by the Laagerbond, you would expect his papers to be full of anti-ANC propaganda.’

  ‘Did you know that Cornelius is bidding for The Times now?’ Calder said. ‘I wonder if the Laagerbond is still funding him?’

  ‘That would be a real prize for them.’

  ‘And an expensive one,’ Calder said. ‘I remember reading the price tag was over eight hundred million pounds.’

  ‘Do you know where he gets his funding from?’ George asked.

  ‘Historically he’s borrowed most of it,’ Calder said. ‘But I can check. Could you find out where Visser and Havenga are now?’

  ‘No problem, that will be easy.’

  ‘And a woman called Libby Wiseman?’

  ‘Libby Wiseman? What does she have to do with this?’

  ‘Apparently she was on a charity board with Martha. They were friends.’

  ‘I know Libby Wiseman vaguely,’ George said. ‘She was in government for a brief time, probably less than a year. I think she lives in Johannesburg now, it should be easy to track her down. I’ll give you a call at your hotel when I’ve got the information.’

  Calder finished his whisky, preparing to leave. ‘Are you still working?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh, I still write the odd piece now and then. And I’m helping out on the Rainbow. It’s a black-owned paper, very well respected, but quite critical of the government. The ANC have achieved a lot over the last ten years, but they now have a monopoly on power. Someone needs to point out the dangers of a one-party state, and that’s what the Rainbow does. But it’s always short of funds. Plus ça change.’

  Calder liked George Field: he was an intelligent man with a good understanding of South Africa. Calder decided to take a step into the minefield that was racial politics. ‘It can’t have been easy being a white South African.’

  ‘A lot easier than being a black one,’ George said.

  ‘You know what I mean. The apartheid regime was obviously evil, but what could you do about it? Voting for the opposition didn’t do much good since the National Party always had a majority. You and Cornelius tried to protest peacefully, but that didn’t work, you were both forced out of the country. Cornelius’s daughter, Zan, got involved in the armed struggle, but a violent revolution doesn’t seem the right answer either.’

  ‘Most white South Africans looked the other way,’ George said. ‘They say now that they had no idea what was going on in their country, but that’s crap. We told them in our newspaper, as did others. OK, sometimes we weren’t allowed to report the whole truth, but if you read the Cape Daily Mail it was easy to work out what was going on. People refused to see it: it was like a mass denial.’

  ‘Many of the people who perpetrated these crimes have got away with it, haven’t they?’

  ‘That’s true,’ George said. ‘A lot of them are still in positions of power, even now. Or they’ve retired on good pensions. This country has all sorts of problems: unemployment, violence, AIDS, a horrific past. But when South Africans argue about whether things are going well or badly, whether the glass is half full or half empty, they forget the most important thing. The glass wasn’t smashed. It took an extraordinary effort by our leaders, not just Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu, but also F. W. de Klerk and his government, to forgive and forget and to try and build a new free country, however flawed it might be.’

  ‘Is Martha’s death part of that past? To be forgiven and forgotten?’

  ‘Perhaps not,’ George said. ‘But digging into the past in South Africa is dangerous. That you have already seen.’

  ‘Are you suggesting I leave it?’ Calder asked.

  George smiled. ‘No. Just be careful.’

  As soon as Calder arrived back at his hotel, he called Tarek al-Seesi in London. He was fortunate to catch him in his office, working late. He asked him to check with the Bloomfield Weiss analyst who covered the media industry to see if there were any unexplained holes in where Cornelius got his funds from. Tarek was happy to help.

  Then he called Kim on her mobile. To his surprise, she was having supper with his father in Anne’s house. Todd was making very good progress, already he seemed much less confused than he had when he had first woken up. After Todd had been transferred down to the private hospital in London, Kim had decided to stay with Dr Calder and the children in Highgate rather than with her father-in-law. Calder told Kim about his discussions with Zan and George Field, and the theory that the Laagerbond might have financed Cornelius in his attempts to buy foreign newspapers. Kim was shocked at first, but she liked the theory. It was clear that her mistrust of Cornelius was growing by the day.

  ‘Will you be able to discuss this with Todd, do you think?’ Calder asked. ‘If Zyl News was financed by mysterious South Africans, Todd might know something. He worked for the company for several years, didn’t he?’

  ‘He did, although from what he has told me Zyl News was funded entirely by bank loans and junk bonds,’ said Kim. ‘Todd’s still pretty groggy. We’ve talked about the plane crash, but not about who might have caused it. I’ll see how he is tomorrow.’

  ‘I’ll leave it up to you to decide.’

  ‘Cornelius and Edwin have been to the hospital. Cornelius has spent quite a lot of time with Todd, but I keep out of the way whenever he’s around. And as for Edwin …’

  ‘Yes?’

  Kim whispered, presumably so that Calder’s father wouldn’t hear. ‘He tried to threaten me. He’s found out about Donna Snyder and he said he’d tell the police. He seems to think they would view me as a sus
pect. He wants me to get you to come home. I told him to piss off.’

  ‘Good for you. Call his bluff, the police won’t care. They’d never take you seriously as a suspect. Speaking of which, how are they getting on?’

  ‘Pathetically. I’ve spoken to Inspector Banks and she says they are not pursuing Cornelius as a line of inquiry. It sounded to me as if she wasn’t very happy with that, but I couldn’t get her to admit it. Oh, and the South African police told her that the records relating to Martha’s murder have been mislaid.’

  ‘Destroyed, they mean,’ Calder said. ‘I can’t believe that the police are leaving Cornelius alone. At least I’m making some progress here.’

  ‘Thanks. Keep trying. Do you want to have a word with your father? He’s right here.’

  ‘Yes, please.’

  He waited a moment and then he heard his father’s Borders’ brogue. ‘Alex? So you’re getting somewhere then?’

  ‘I think so. Kim will tell you.’

  ‘Good. I’m relying on you.’

  Calder smiled. ‘How’s Anne?’

  ‘Stable. She’ll keep the other leg.’

  ‘Is she conscious?’

  ‘Yes. I spoke to her this afternoon on the telephone.’

  ‘Did she say anything about me?’

  ‘I think William has been getting her agitated. I’ve told him he really shouldn’t, but it’s difficult to be firm with him from up here.’

  ‘So she did say something about me.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it, Alex. Just concentrate on finding the bastard who did this.’

  ‘I will. How are Phoebe and Robbie?’

  ‘They went to school today. I think it’s best to get them into some kind of familiar routine. Robbie is very quiet indeed, but he did have a chance to speak to his mother on the phone.’

  ‘Will they get over it?’ Calder asked.

  ‘Aye, they will,’ said Dr Calder. ‘Especially once we get Annie down here.’

  ‘I hope you’re right.’

  ‘Alex, before you go …’ Calder could hear footsteps as his father walked somewhere more private. Trouble.