Master and merchant of communication interception
One South African company looms large in the international arena of mass surveillance: VASTech.
With offices i n Stellenbosch, Pretoria, Dubai and Switzerland, the company primarily supplies mass surveillance equipment to Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
VASTech, which had a turnover of at least R30-million by 2006, was founded in 1999 by Frans Dreyer, who died i n a plane crash in Libya in 2010. It rented premises at the government’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Scientia campus from as far back as February 2005.
CSIR spokesperson Tendani Tsedu said the relationship between the CSIR and VASTech was limited to office rental.
By 2006, VASTech had successfully graduated from the Gauteng government’s Innovation Hub “incubation” programme for new businesses. The i ncubator fast-tracks start-ups by providing resources such as office space, legal services and marketing.
Hub spokesperson Linah Nematandani said VASTech was only offered space to operate and business mentorship. The Hub was aware of the product and services that VASTech was developing, but its activities and clients were legal.
The department of trade and industry funded VASTech twice. In the 2007-2008 financial year, it approved a grant of R1.3-million for developing VASTech’s Zebra product and, in 2010, it approved R2.69million for “Project Next”, the details of which are unknown to the M&G.
The Wall Street Journal reported i n 2011 that the VASTech Zebra was found in a surveillance centre used by the Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya. At the time, VASTech said it sold its equipment to governments not subject to international sanctions.
The trade and industry department said it funded VASTech’s development of the Zebra on the understanding that the device would be used for monitoring borders and stadiums.
VASTech’s relationship with the government also features in the so-called “spy cables” — top-secret government intelligence reports published by Al Jazeera in February.
In one cable, a 2010 report from the South African National Intelligence Agency (NIA) describes an Iranian government delegation visiting VASTech in 2005, where t hey received i nformation about “active l a wf u l interception” and “passive unrestricted monitoring”. In the report, the NIA expresses concerns that Iranian spy services could target VASTech and entities such as Denel, the National Communications Centre and the South African Secret Service.
Local technology website ITWeb stated in a 2006 interview with Dreyer that the company had signed a three-year contract with the state to provide a “recording solution”.
To gain an understanding of VASTech’s international standing, the Mail & Guardian sought the opinion of Sam Vaknin, a seasoned reporter on the Middle East and the Balkans, with sources linked to Israeli and other intelligence agencies. Vaknin was clear: the Zebra did not fit South Africa’s intelligence profile because the country’s spy services preferred surveilling individuals: “It would be journalists, liberal activists, academics, enemies of intelligence services.” This made the Zebra unnecessary, he said.
But Vaknin said there were rumours in global intelligence circles that the government initially collaborated with Russian intelligence agencies to fund VASTech.
“Each government pledged to purchase at least one system as a form of financial support. The South African services are using the Zebra only spottily and sporadically. The Russians ordered two or three additional systems over the years and gave them to allies,” he said.
Vaknin said that, after Dreyer died in 2010, VASTech’s ties with the South African government strengthened. “VASTech was in panic, and everyone thought it was about to die. Then they hopped into bed with the government much more forwardly. ”
The department of trade and industry did not respond to the M&G’s questions, VASTech would not comment, citing client confidentiality, and the State Securituy Agency declined to comment, citing internal policy restrictions.