Lukas Daniel Barnard (born 1949), known as Niël Barnard, is a former head of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

's National Intelligence Service and was notable for his behind-the-scenes role in preparing former president

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

and former South African presidents

P.W. Botha Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and af, Die Groot Krokodil (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and ...

and

F. W. de Klerk Frederik Willem de Klerk (, , 18 March 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African politician who served as state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president from 1994 to 1996 in the democratic government. As South A ...

for Mandela's eventual and, as he saw it, inevitable, release from prison and rise to political power.

Early life

Niël Barnard was born in 1948 in Otjiwarongo, South West Africa (now

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

). His father was headmaster and chief-inspector of education in SWA/Namibia. Barnard was in his teens at the time of the

Rivonia Trial The Rivonia Trial took place in South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964, and led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the others among the accused who were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life at the Palace of Justice ...

of 1963, in which

and several other

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

leaders were convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison. He did his compulsory military service in the commando system and reached the rank of captain and then was part of the Citizen Force in Bloemfontein. He met his wife, Engela Brand in 1968 and they married on 1 April 1972.

Education and University career

Barnard begun his education at the

University of the Orange Free State The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in 1904 as a tertiary se ...

in 1968 obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History. He followed this up by completing a Master of Arts in 1972 and a PhD in 1975. By 1973 Barnard was a Political Science lecturer at the same university. In 1977 he was a Senior lecturer and by 1978 a professor of Political Studies.

Intelligence career

He first came to the attention of P.W. Botha, after he had written a Ph.D. thesis at the

, although Barnard would claim in a 1992 newspaper interview that he was unsure as to why he was chosen, not having an intelligence background. In the wake of the

Info scandal The Muldergate scandal, also known as the Information Scandal or Infogate, was a South African political scandal involving a secret propaganda campaign conducted by the apartheid Department of Information. It centred on revelations about the Depa ...

in which the

Bureau of State Security The Bureau for State Security ( af, Buro vir Staatsveiligheid; also known as the Bureau of State Security (BOSS)) was the main South African state intelligence agency from 1969 to 1980. A high-budget and secretive institution, it reported directly ...

(BOSS) had become mired, Botha appointed Barnard in November 1979 to form a new intelligence service. He started at the Department of National Security (DONS) as Chief Deputy Secretary on 3 December 1979. He would take over at DONS on 1 June 1980 after the retirement of the existing head Alec van Wyk. The Department of National Security was the new name of the Bureau of State Security (B.O.S.S.) and was renamed in September 1978 after the retirement of its head Hendrik van den Berg in June 1978. The National Intelligence Service came into operation in 1980. Central to the new National Intelligence Service was a debate triggered by Niel Barnard, on the strategic objective of the new intelligence structure. Barnard believed that if the referent object is state security, then, in essence, it means that the intelligence structures have to secure the government from its own citizens. As an alternative, Barnard proposed a national security focus, which meant that security could best be achieved by focussing on threats to the nation, rather than the state. In essence, this implied constitutional reform to implement a universal franchise, thereby laying the foundation for the negotiated transition to democracy that took place in

CODESA The apartheid system in South Africa was ended through a series of bilateral and multi-party negotiations between 1990 and 1993. The negotiations culminated in the passage of a new interim Constitution in 1993, a precursor to the Constitution ...

, an event envisaged and by NIS.Turton, A.R. 2010. Shaking Hands with Billy: The Private Memoirs of Anthony Richard Turton. Durban: Just Done Publications. http://www.shakinghandswithbilly.com For this reason, Barnard moved on to the Department of Constitutional Affairs as soon as

had reached a point of no return. The logic underpinning the new service was one of national security, which differed fundamentally from the state security paradigm that had underpinned BOSS. Central to this new vision was the core belief that the only way to find lasting security was to develop a nation, and that meant renegotiating the constitution to include all South Africans irrespective of race. As the head of

's National Intelligence Service (NIS), he recognized that his country would have to find a political settlement to eliminate

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

and that Nelson Mandela would have to play a fundamental role in the process. He first met with Mandela in 1988 at the prison. He met many times with Mandela in order to inform him about the political situation outside the prison and advise him on how to negotiate with the South African president P. W. Botha. As secret talks commenced, Barnard arranged to have Nelson Mandela moved from Robben Island to the mainland, to facilitate more regular contact but also to prevent the media from becoming aware of the status of this contact. To facilitate this process he allowed

Operation Vula Operation Vula (also known as Operation Vulindlela, IsiXhosa language, Xhosa for ''Open the Road'') was a secret domestic programme of the African National Congress (ANC) during the final years of apartheid in South Africa. Initiated in 1986 at t ...

to continue because this deepened the contact between Nelson Mandela and the exiled leadership of the

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election installe ...

.Turton, A.R. 2017. Operation Vula. In Nongqai, Journal of National Security History in Southern Africa, Vol. 8; No. 7. Pp 48 – 61. Available online at https://issuu.com/hennieheymans/docs/nongqai_vol_8_no_7 He arranged for Mandela to be given a suit of clothes befitting a future leader, and for future meetings to take place in a private residence near the prison. While counseling both parties on how to come to some agreements on the terms for Mandela's eventual release, he arranged several more meetings. When Botha's health forced him to resign, Barnard continued to facilitate discussions between Mandela and the new president,

Career after the NIS

Barnard was Director of the NIS from 1980 to 1992, when he was replaced by his long standing deputy

Mike Louw Michael James Minaar Louw (c1940 – 2009) was a former Director-General of the South African National Intelligence Service (NIS) and after the 1994 South African elections, appointed as head of the new South African Secret Service. He played a ...

. In 1994 Barnard took over a post in the Department of Constitutional Development and Provincial Affairs under Roelf Meyer in the Government of National Unity. It was this core logic that defined the ultimate role that Barnard was to play in creating the political climate behind the scenes for the

Convention for a Democratic South Africa Convention may refer to: * Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct ** Treaty, an agreement in international law * Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in ...

(CODESA) that ultimately drafted the constitution underpinning the transition to democracy in 1994.

References

External links