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Spy - Uncovering Craig Williamson
The apartheid agent and killer who got away with it all …
It was in 1972 when the seemingly ordinary Craig Williamson registered at Wits University and joined the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). Williamson was elected NUSAS’s vice president and in January 1977, when his career in student politics came to an abrupt end, he fled the country and from Europe continued his anti-apartheid ‘work’. But Williamson was not the activist his friends and comrades thought he was. In January 1980, Captain Williamson was unmasked as a South African spy. Williamson returned to South Africa and during the turbulent 1980s worked for the foreign section of the South African Police’s notorious Security Branch and South Africa’s ‘super-spy’ transformed into a parcel-bomb assassin.
It was in 1972 when the seemingly ordinary Craig Williamson registered at Wits University and joined the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). Williamson was elected NUSAS’s vice president and in January 1977, when his career in student politics came to an abrupt end, he fled the country and from Europe continued his anti-apartheid ‘work’. But Williamson was not the activist his friends and comrades thought he was. In January 1980, Captain Williamson was unmasked as a South African spy. Williamson returned to South Africa and during the turbulent 1980s worked for the foreign section of the South African Police’s notorious Security Branch and South Africa’s ‘super-spy’ transformed into a parcel-bomb assassin.
- GenresAfrica
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2017
About the author
Jonathan Ancer
11 books18 followersJournalist, cryptic crossword fan, enthusiastic cyclist and collector of Billy Bunter books.
Author of:
The Victor Within;
Spy: Uncovering Craig Williamson;
Betrayal: The Secret Lives of Apartheid Spies; Mensches in the Trenches: Jewish foot soldiers in the anti-apartheid struggle;
Joining the Dots: The Unauthorised Biography of Pravin Gordhan; and
Bullsh!t: 50 Fibs that Made South Africa
Author of:
The Victor Within;
Spy: Uncovering Craig Williamson;
Betrayal: The Secret Lives of Apartheid Spies; Mensches in the Trenches: Jewish foot soldiers in the anti-apartheid struggle;
Joining the Dots: The Unauthorised Biography of Pravin Gordhan; and
Bullsh!t: 50 Fibs that Made South Africa
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 5, 2017
From 1988 - 1991 I was a student at the University of Cape Town. Before that I attended a liberal private school in Johannesburg, one of the kind that Craig Williamson went to. I was minimally involved in the tail-end of the struggle against apartheid. I was arrested in the Purple Rain Protest in 1989, ran from policemen on campus and was in the celebratory crowd when Mandela addressed us in February 1991 - a free man.
Reading Spy was a stark reminder of how much courage it took to resist oppression in the apartheid state. Detention, torture and assassination claimed the lives of people bolder than I could imagine myself ever being. Aside from the people Williamson was responsible for killing, Charles Nupen, Duncan Innes, Janet Love, Guy Berger, Renfrew Christie and Neil Aggett (to name but a few) are documented in Ancer's book as young white South Africans who were willing to lay down their lives to see an end to social injustice.
I commend Jonathan Ancer for living with the character of Williamson looming in his mind for three years while he meticulously researched this well written book. I could barely stand having the image of this despicable individual on my bedside table for a week! Spy is an important record of our history. It charts the path of many (then young) ANC leaders in exile like Mac Maharaj and Aziz Pahad. It sets out the duplicious means a super-spy employed in order to play his deadly games by infiltrating student bodies and international organisations. It questions the TRC as it failed the Schoon and Slovo families and it reminds us of the havoc that conscienceless psychopaths can cause in society.
I agree with the sentiment expressed somewhere in the book that, post 1994, it would take more than Madiba stardust to fix the complicated past. In 2017, when constructs of division abound in SA politics, this book serves as a reminder that unity across race can bring about extraordinary change. I salute all the heroes of the struggle anew after reading Spy. Let us not forget the immense sacrifices made for democracy by so many exceptionally brave people who truly looked into the face of evil.
Reading Spy was a stark reminder of how much courage it took to resist oppression in the apartheid state. Detention, torture and assassination claimed the lives of people bolder than I could imagine myself ever being. Aside from the people Williamson was responsible for killing, Charles Nupen, Duncan Innes, Janet Love, Guy Berger, Renfrew Christie and Neil Aggett (to name but a few) are documented in Ancer's book as young white South Africans who were willing to lay down their lives to see an end to social injustice.
I commend Jonathan Ancer for living with the character of Williamson looming in his mind for three years while he meticulously researched this well written book. I could barely stand having the image of this despicable individual on my bedside table for a week! Spy is an important record of our history. It charts the path of many (then young) ANC leaders in exile like Mac Maharaj and Aziz Pahad. It sets out the duplicious means a super-spy employed in order to play his deadly games by infiltrating student bodies and international organisations. It questions the TRC as it failed the Schoon and Slovo families and it reminds us of the havoc that conscienceless psychopaths can cause in society.
I agree with the sentiment expressed somewhere in the book that, post 1994, it would take more than Madiba stardust to fix the complicated past. In 2017, when constructs of division abound in SA politics, this book serves as a reminder that unity across race can bring about extraordinary change. I salute all the heroes of the struggle anew after reading Spy. Let us not forget the immense sacrifices made for democracy by so many exceptionally brave people who truly looked into the face of evil.
April 28, 2017
A painful but necessary read.
June 1, 2017
Spy is a necessary yet harrowing read for all South Africans.
June 2, 2017
South Africa’s infamous “Super Spy”
When Jonathan Lancer was a studying journalism at Rhodes University, he was asked to write an article (to be published) about what he saw as the most momentous day in South African History. He chose 17 August 1982. The day that Ruth First, wife of Joe Slovo, mother of Gillian, Robyn and Shawn, was assassinated by a letter bomb. He chose to write about Ruth First not because of who she married or her children, but her contribution to the struggle against apartheid. She was known as a brilliant, brave journalist and a political activist who refused to shut up about the National Party government who ruled South Africa at the time. She had fled South Africa and at the time of her assassination was working as the of director of research at the Centre of African Studies (Centro de Estudos Africanos) in Maputo, Mozambique. Craig Williamson’s form of execution was a letter bomb.
Jonathan Ancer was with a fellow journalist driving along the Ruth First Freeway in Durban when he asked his companion what he thought Craig Williamson thought when he drove along this highway, or came across streets and buildings named after her. His companion gave him a blank look and asked, “Who is Craig Williamson?” This reaction convinced him to start investigating Craig Williamson to ensure that this man’s deeds were never forgotten by South Africans.
How could this man, educated at a prestigious private boys’ school in Johannesburg, have turned into a psychopathic killer working for the Security Service’s Special Branch? It appears that Williamson was known as an arrogant bully at school and when Ancer interviewed boys who had attended school with him, none showed surprise what career path he’d taken after leaving school.
In South Africa during the late 60s, 70s and 80s and early 90s all boys finishing school were forced to enlist in the army. It meant nine months training and a month’s service for the next ten years – or alternatively, you could join the police force and work for four years. This is the what Craig Williamson chose. He was spotted as a potential member of the Special Branch quite soon after joining the police and, once offered the role to be a member of this secret police force, he had absolutely no hesitation in agreeing to work for them.
Once his training was over, he was asked to enrol in a degree course at the University of the Witwatersrand to infiltrate the left-wing student movement at Wits. He very quickly managed to get elected to Wits University’s NUSAS (National Students Union) committee and later the national committee of the organisation.
In 1975 while in London on NUSAS business, he met Lars-Gunnar Eriksson, the head of IUEF (International University Exchange Fund). Williamson managed to persuade Eriksson to employ him and it was through this organisation that Williamson met members of the ANC, Pan African Congress’s military members (APLA) and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) the military wing of the ANC)
He used funds from this organisation to help people flee South Africa (obviously making him look like their friend!) However, it was all a ruse. Many of the people he helped flee the country found themselves facing treason charges with Craig Williamson as the main witness for the prosecution.
I could write more about this treacherous, psychopathic man who even persuaded his wife Ingrid to spy for him when she worked at the World Health Organisation. However,
I’d rather you read the book. Jonathan Ancer has done an excellent job of researching Williamson’s “career”.
Was there ever justice for his victims’ families? NO! He was granted amnesty during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He claimed that he was ordered to carry out the killings, torture and spying by his bosses; the Special Branch.
Like many liberal South Africans, I was shocked when he was exposed as a spy by the Sunday Times in 1980. Members of my family fought hard to have the yoke of apartheid lifted.
Reading this book and discovering that he’d declared himself bankrupt so that he didn’t have to pay damages to Jenny Schoor’s son, Fritz, was to me the lowest of the low. He lives in one of the most prestigious estates in Kyalami, South Africa; is a regular at all the top show-jumping events (his daughter being a show jumper). His wife Ingrid, who seemed to get off without ever having to appear for being complicit in his spying developed “friendships” with many of his victims. She is still a practicing psychiatrist in Johannesburg.
I want to ask one last question: This is for you Craig Williamson: How do you sleep at night?
Treebeard
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
When Jonathan Lancer was a studying journalism at Rhodes University, he was asked to write an article (to be published) about what he saw as the most momentous day in South African History. He chose 17 August 1982. The day that Ruth First, wife of Joe Slovo, mother of Gillian, Robyn and Shawn, was assassinated by a letter bomb. He chose to write about Ruth First not because of who she married or her children, but her contribution to the struggle against apartheid. She was known as a brilliant, brave journalist and a political activist who refused to shut up about the National Party government who ruled South Africa at the time. She had fled South Africa and at the time of her assassination was working as the of director of research at the Centre of African Studies (Centro de Estudos Africanos) in Maputo, Mozambique. Craig Williamson’s form of execution was a letter bomb.
Jonathan Ancer was with a fellow journalist driving along the Ruth First Freeway in Durban when he asked his companion what he thought Craig Williamson thought when he drove along this highway, or came across streets and buildings named after her. His companion gave him a blank look and asked, “Who is Craig Williamson?” This reaction convinced him to start investigating Craig Williamson to ensure that this man’s deeds were never forgotten by South Africans.
How could this man, educated at a prestigious private boys’ school in Johannesburg, have turned into a psychopathic killer working for the Security Service’s Special Branch? It appears that Williamson was known as an arrogant bully at school and when Ancer interviewed boys who had attended school with him, none showed surprise what career path he’d taken after leaving school.
In South Africa during the late 60s, 70s and 80s and early 90s all boys finishing school were forced to enlist in the army. It meant nine months training and a month’s service for the next ten years – or alternatively, you could join the police force and work for four years. This is the what Craig Williamson chose. He was spotted as a potential member of the Special Branch quite soon after joining the police and, once offered the role to be a member of this secret police force, he had absolutely no hesitation in agreeing to work for them.
Once his training was over, he was asked to enrol in a degree course at the University of the Witwatersrand to infiltrate the left-wing student movement at Wits. He very quickly managed to get elected to Wits University’s NUSAS (National Students Union) committee and later the national committee of the organisation.
In 1975 while in London on NUSAS business, he met Lars-Gunnar Eriksson, the head of IUEF (International University Exchange Fund). Williamson managed to persuade Eriksson to employ him and it was through this organisation that Williamson met members of the ANC, Pan African Congress’s military members (APLA) and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) the military wing of the ANC)
He used funds from this organisation to help people flee South Africa (obviously making him look like their friend!) However, it was all a ruse. Many of the people he helped flee the country found themselves facing treason charges with Craig Williamson as the main witness for the prosecution.
I could write more about this treacherous, psychopathic man who even persuaded his wife Ingrid to spy for him when she worked at the World Health Organisation. However,
I’d rather you read the book. Jonathan Ancer has done an excellent job of researching Williamson’s “career”.
Was there ever justice for his victims’ families? NO! He was granted amnesty during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He claimed that he was ordered to carry out the killings, torture and spying by his bosses; the Special Branch.
Like many liberal South Africans, I was shocked when he was exposed as a spy by the Sunday Times in 1980. Members of my family fought hard to have the yoke of apartheid lifted.
Reading this book and discovering that he’d declared himself bankrupt so that he didn’t have to pay damages to Jenny Schoor’s son, Fritz, was to me the lowest of the low. He lives in one of the most prestigious estates in Kyalami, South Africa; is a regular at all the top show-jumping events (his daughter being a show jumper). His wife Ingrid, who seemed to get off without ever having to appear for being complicit in his spying developed “friendships” with many of his victims. She is still a practicing psychiatrist in Johannesburg.
I want to ask one last question: This is for you Craig Williamson: How do you sleep at night?
Treebeard
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
June 6, 2017
A story that needed to be told of the double spy behind the Apartheid-motivated murders of Ruth First, Jeanette Schoon and her 6-year-old daughter Katryn. An important book.
January 29, 2018
On the whole, I found Jonathan Ancer's Spy - Uncovering Craig Williamson a gripping and harrowing read - in part due to my family's connection to the events, and in part due to nature of events portrayed.
Jeanette (Jenny) Curtis Schoon - who was killed with her 6 year old daughter Katryn by the letter bomb sent by Williamson and his team - is my first cousin and (before marriage) we shared a common name - Jeanette (Jenny) Curtis, both named after our paternal grandmother who came from Capetown. We (my immediate family) were in Africa (Zambia) during much of the time the events in the book - From 1968-1974 & then my parents returned (to Zimbabwe) from 1984-1989. We passed through South Africa - by train, car and plane & visited Uncle John and Aunty Joyce in Bentleigh, met our cousins, got a taste of South Africa under apartheid, heard about Neville's banning, his escape to Australia, and Jenny's and Katryn's tragic deaths (and Fritz's escape). These events are very much etched in our memories as a family.
In recent years, I've learnt more of the details- through Uncle John's memoirs South African Saga https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... & through Gillian Slovo's books like Red Dust https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... and Every Secret Thing https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... - though newspaper articles and TRC reports and online archives, so I was familiar with much of the story, particularly as it related to Jenny and Marius, Katryn and Fritz - and also Ruth First (Gillian Slovo's mother).
It was good to get better feel of Williamson's career as a spy and letter-bomber, some idea of his motivations and his lack of remorse and smooth rationalisations for what he did. I hadn't realised how deeply he had penetrated both the student groups (NUSAs) and, through IUES to connections with ANC, Black Consciousness Movement and other groups- playing one group against the other, sowing discord and distrust, and even using money meant to help the struggle against apartheid to fund the infamous Daisy Farm & training of anti-apartheid agents.
Also good to see Jenny's part in anti-apartheid struggle noted (and in passing - John, Joyce and Neville's) - though I thought that in the earlier parts of the book the reader may have trouble connecting the scattered references to Jeanette Curtis, Jenny Curtis, Jeanette Schoon, Jenny Schoon as one person until the later chapters dealing with her marriage to Marius, escape to Botswana, Lusaka and Angola, and the bombing that ended her life. Though some images are hard to forget – the devastation a letter bomb causes, the effects of the blast on a six-year old child.
Of course, this book is not just about Jenny - but many others like Ruth First, members of NUSA and others both white and black who fought against the injustice of Apartheid at great cost- and who were befriended by Williamson and then betrayed and pursued with malice and deadly intent.
Overall, Ancer does a good job of tracing the incidents and digging deep in an attempt to understand who Williamson is and why he did what he did. Was he a super-spy or a blustering and ineffective buffoon? Was he a psychopath or an insecure and venial man swept along by events? Certainly, on the face of it, he seems to have profited handsomely from his actions - and had no qualms declaring bankruptcy (while continuing to live the high life and his wife’s wealth) to get out of his sworn agreement to compensate Jenny's son, Fritz (Fritz was two, miraculously survived the bombing while witnessing his mother and sister's death). Yet, in the end, I believe in a divine justice - and that you can't fake remorse and true regret before a heavenly judge. And, as someone in the book said, Williamson and his masters lost - Apartheid was dismantled, the transition peaceful – with the chance and hope of a better South Africa.
Jeanette (Jenny) Curtis Schoon - who was killed with her 6 year old daughter Katryn by the letter bomb sent by Williamson and his team - is my first cousin and (before marriage) we shared a common name - Jeanette (Jenny) Curtis, both named after our paternal grandmother who came from Capetown. We (my immediate family) were in Africa (Zambia) during much of the time the events in the book - From 1968-1974 & then my parents returned (to Zimbabwe) from 1984-1989. We passed through South Africa - by train, car and plane & visited Uncle John and Aunty Joyce in Bentleigh, met our cousins, got a taste of South Africa under apartheid, heard about Neville's banning, his escape to Australia, and Jenny's and Katryn's tragic deaths (and Fritz's escape). These events are very much etched in our memories as a family.
In recent years, I've learnt more of the details- through Uncle John's memoirs South African Saga https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... & through Gillian Slovo's books like Red Dust https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... and Every Secret Thing https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... - though newspaper articles and TRC reports and online archives, so I was familiar with much of the story, particularly as it related to Jenny and Marius, Katryn and Fritz - and also Ruth First (Gillian Slovo's mother).
It was good to get better feel of Williamson's career as a spy and letter-bomber, some idea of his motivations and his lack of remorse and smooth rationalisations for what he did. I hadn't realised how deeply he had penetrated both the student groups (NUSAs) and, through IUES to connections with ANC, Black Consciousness Movement and other groups- playing one group against the other, sowing discord and distrust, and even using money meant to help the struggle against apartheid to fund the infamous Daisy Farm & training of anti-apartheid agents.
Also good to see Jenny's part in anti-apartheid struggle noted (and in passing - John, Joyce and Neville's) - though I thought that in the earlier parts of the book the reader may have trouble connecting the scattered references to Jeanette Curtis, Jenny Curtis, Jeanette Schoon, Jenny Schoon as one person until the later chapters dealing with her marriage to Marius, escape to Botswana, Lusaka and Angola, and the bombing that ended her life. Though some images are hard to forget – the devastation a letter bomb causes, the effects of the blast on a six-year old child.
Of course, this book is not just about Jenny - but many others like Ruth First, members of NUSA and others both white and black who fought against the injustice of Apartheid at great cost- and who were befriended by Williamson and then betrayed and pursued with malice and deadly intent.
Overall, Ancer does a good job of tracing the incidents and digging deep in an attempt to understand who Williamson is and why he did what he did. Was he a super-spy or a blustering and ineffective buffoon? Was he a psychopath or an insecure and venial man swept along by events? Certainly, on the face of it, he seems to have profited handsomely from his actions - and had no qualms declaring bankruptcy (while continuing to live the high life and his wife’s wealth) to get out of his sworn agreement to compensate Jenny's son, Fritz (Fritz was two, miraculously survived the bombing while witnessing his mother and sister's death). Yet, in the end, I believe in a divine justice - and that you can't fake remorse and true regret before a heavenly judge. And, as someone in the book said, Williamson and his masters lost - Apartheid was dismantled, the transition peaceful – with the chance and hope of a better South Africa.
June 9, 2017
Loved the book but as I surmised in the beginning and was confirmed at the end - Craig Williamson was an ass and was elevated to an undeserved super spy level. He was simply put a bad person with bad morals who happened to become a "spy"
Well written and a must read for any South African. Thank you Jonathan Ancer for living with this man in order to write this book.
Well written and a must read for any South African. Thank you Jonathan Ancer for living with this man in order to write this book.
September 9, 2021
It was interesting , it was intruiging and left me speechless it left me with mixed feeling but 8 love it
October 22, 2017
A wonderfully written, harrowing account of a toxic thread of SA history. A must-read.
December 17, 2017
An interesting and detailed take on this odious and self-admitted murderer. However the overall credibility of Ancer's account is spoiled by at least two very basic mistakes. The short-lived Republican Party won 0 seats in the 1966 election (not the 22 Ancer claims) and the Progressive Party won only 1 (not 26). And Pretoria is not "thousands of kilometres away" from Maputo (more like 500). This being said, I am glad I read the book, an it definitely adds to our knowledge of just how obscene was apartheid and those who served it.
February 4, 2025
The author is unabashedly and rabidly pro-ANC, which, in 2025, means that he is pro-Putin, anti-Ukraine and pro-Hamas.
Despite this prejudice, the author presents a rather evenly balanced overview of the activity of an exceptional Police Officer.
The problem with America and Canada is that it has clowns like James Comey, Andrew McCabe and Julian Fantino instead of real police like Craig Williamson.
Despite this prejudice, the author presents a rather evenly balanced overview of the activity of an exceptional Police Officer.
The problem with America and Canada is that it has clowns like James Comey, Andrew McCabe and Julian Fantino instead of real police like Craig Williamson.
January 16, 2018
I am currently reading a range of books on spies during the apartheid time. This book really helped to build a bigger and stronger picture of the events of that time.
August 3, 2018
Interesting read.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews