Pelindaba nuclear breach still a mystery

Lest you think that the West's fears about Africa's capacity to safeguard its nuclear material and stations are unfounded, I refer you to the happenings in Africa's only nuclear capable country.

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It has been a year since two armed gangs launched simultaneous attacks on the Pelindaba nuclear facility outside Pretoria, yet no one has been arrested for the crime that left one man wounded and South Africans wondering what the real motive for the assault was.

Although Pretoria police announced the arrest of three people, including a 17-year-old, in connection with the crime a week after the incident, police this week said no one had been arrested.

Three security guards at Pelindaba were fired earlier in 2008 after an internal investigation found them to be negligent.

During the attack, Anton Gerber, the Pelindaba emergency control room station commander, was shot by the intruders and Ria Meiring, an operator, was assaulted by the four men who had managed to penetrate the secure nuclear facility on the night of November 7, 2007.

Rob Adam, the chief executive of the National Energy Corporation of SA (Necsa), said at the time that "four armed, technically sophisticated criminals" had entered the Necsa site by cutting the outside fence and slipping through the electric fence.

The attackers had roamed the premises for about an hour, during which they stole a ladder from a fire engine to gain access to the first floor of the emergency control centre through a window.

A computer was stolen and placed on a balcony, then the men moved to the control room where they attacked Gerber and Meiring before fleeing, leaving the computer.

Adam emphasised at the time that it was evident the criminals had prior knowledge of the electronic security systems.

"These activities were captured on surveillance cameras but, unfortunately, not detected by the operators on duty," Necsa had said.

Adam had also vehemently stated that "at no time was the emergency control room systems compromised".

Another, simultaneous breach on the opposite boundary fence was spotted by a security guard. The gang fled in the ensuing shootout.

Gerber and Meiring, his fiance, are suing Necsa for damages and loss of income following their ordeal. Papers filed in the Pretoria High Court in November state that Gerber is claiming R850 000 and Meiring R750 000 from Necsa and the security staff on duty on the night of the attack.

Summonses have been issued against Necsa and a security services manager, security shift supervisor and two camera room operators who were on duty.

According to court papers, the couple are claiming negligence on the grounds that the camera operators were asleep and did not warn them about the trespassers or organise a timeous response. It had taken security guards 24 minutes to respond to their calls for help.

Gerber said during a recent American network television 60 Minutes programme that it took police 10 months to interview him.

Necsa has kept its report on what happened that night secret, only indicating that security has been improved since the attacks at the facility, which houses hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium, remnants of the apartheid government's nuclear bombs dismantled in the early 1990s.

Highly enriched uranium, which was worth millions on the black market as the fuel used in nuclear bombs, was also used in medical research.

Although the anti-nuclear lobby and other interest groups believe the attackers were after information, others believed the attackers were after the weapons-grade uranium.

In the past year the Pelindaba attack had become an item of discussion in the security industry abroad, so much so that it had been developed into a defence safety analysis case study, Mike Kantey, the chairperson of the Coalition Against Nuclear Energy in South Africa (Cane), said this week.

Matthew Bunn of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government said in the 60 Minutes programme that if terrorists got hold of the uranium, "it would not be hard to build a crude atomic bomb".

Arie van der Bijl, the general manager of Necsa, denied in the same programme that the two attacks on the same night were linked.

Adam believed it was a random criminal act and that if these were "sophisticated terrorists", Gerber would not be alive. He was supported by Abdul Minty, South Africa's nomination for director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

A senior police official said this week the fact that the case was being investigated by the serious and violent crimes unit was a clear indication this was more than a "mere break-in".

"This is a national keypoint, a protected site," he said.

Necsa has offered a R25 000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators. To date, there have been no takers.

In January, IAEA experts reported after their visit to Pelindaba that there was no evidence that sensitive nuclear areas were under any threat during the incident.

It recommended specific proposals for security training and equipment to the South African authorities, adding that the security upgrade plan at Pelindaba provided an "appropriate basis" for ensuring physical protection of nuclear material and nuclear facilities at the site.

This week Necsa again strongly denied that the intruders were anywhere near the uranium stocks.

"These stocks have additional internationally benchmarked security features protecting them," said Elliot Mulane, a spokesperson.

It also denied that the attackers could have been after information.

"There is no mainframe computer in the building that the intruders broke into and the local area network is controlled from a server located about 2km from this building," he said.