/ 29 May 2008

Craig Williamson: Apartheid careerist

Craig Williamson applied for amnesty for the murders of Ruth First in Mozambique in 1982 and of Jeannette and Katryn Schoon in 1984 in Angola. He also applied for amnesty for his role in the bombing of the ANC’s offices in London in 1982.

Williamson was born on April 23 1949 and matriculated from the exclusive private school, St Johns College, in Johannesburg, in 1967. The next year he joined the South African Police, becoming a sergeant, based at the Parkview police station. In 1971 he was recruited into the intelligence arm of the police.

On his handler’s orders he enrolled at Wits University in 1972 and began reporting on student activities. The next year saw him elected to the students’ representative council; by 1974 he had become a member of the SRC executive.

According to a fellow SRC member, who asked to remain anonymous, the six-person executive was evenly split: half of them were apartheid spies.

Williamson moved to Cape Town as national finance officer of the National Union of South African Students (Nusas) and was elected Nusas vice-president in 1975.

In 1976 Williamson ‘fled” South Africa for Botswana, where he met the head of the International University Exchange Fund, Lars Gunner Erickson, who gave him a job.

The ANC debriefed Williamson in 1977. He then took up his position in Geneva, which involved the clandestine channelling of funds to anti-apartheid organisations in Southern Africa through a network of agents. Some were genuine, others, including his sister, were suspect.

By 1979 there were financial problems at the IUEF, an issue Williamson used to try to blackmail Erikson in an attempt to stop him from exposing the spy’s true activities. But in 1980 his cover was blown by The Guardian in London.

Wiliamson returned to South Africa and continued to work for the security forces. He harboured hopes of a political career, but in 1987 failed to win a position as National Party MP for Bryanston.

He was appointed to the President’s Council in 1987, where he remained until 1991.