A Very South African Plot? The 1987 London Kidnap Plan

Abstract

This essay considers a South African plot to kidnap and torture senior members of the African National Congress working in London in 1987 to extract information from them, and explores the response of the British state to this conspiracy. Using previously unexamined documents from the files of Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office revealed following a Freedom of Information request, supplemented by interviews in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Norway, we make the following arguments. First, that the extent of South African covert activity abroad during the apartheid period has been underestimated and remains insufficiently explored. Secondly, that the agents of the South African security services continued to pursue their activities after the end of apartheid. Thirdly, that considerable information about these activities has yet to be revealed as it is held in government files that remain closed.