more than 1 000 agents, many of whom worked undercover. Internal surveillance BOSS was involved in gathering and assessing intelligence about anti-Apartheid and liberation movements, including identifying targets for raids, both in South Africa and in neighbouring countries. For example, Charles Sebe, before he became security chief in the Ciskei homeland, was a BOSS agent in King William's Town, where BOSS was investigating local chapters of the Black Consciousness Movement. In late 1979 and early 1980, the British Observer published allegations – substantiated by documents leaked by a former BOSS agent – that BOSS, then known as the Department of National Security, had been intercepting the mail and private telephone calls of prominent politicians and civil society leaders, including Alan Paton, André Brink, and Helen Suzman. Propaganda As was revealed in the Information Scandal of 1978, BOSS acted as banker for the Department of Information in respect of a secret slush fund channelled from the Department of Defence and used to fund a series of propaganda projects, including the establishment of the Citizen, a pro-government newspaper. Some of BOSS's own budget was occasionally used for the same purpose. It is unclear exactly what role BOSS played in the propaganda campaign at the heart of the scandal, but the Department of Information relied on BOSS intelligence. Van den Bergh was certainly closely involved in the planning and implementation of the campaign, and other BOSS officials may also have been. Z-Squad and alleged extra-judicial killings At the Erasmus Commission of inquiry following the Muldergate scandal, van den Bergh hinted that murder was within the scope of BOSS's duties: "I have enough men to commit murder if I tell them to kill. I don't care who the prey is. These are the type of men I have." Former BOSS agents later claimed that BOSS was involved in extra-judicial killings through a covert operational unit formed in the early 1970s and known as the "Z-Squad." Others confirmed that the Z-Squad existed but denied that it was involved in political killings. The Z-Squad was linked to the 1977 assassination of NP politician Robert Smit and his wife; the 1978 assassination of Rick Turner; and the February 1974 cross-border assassinations by letter bombs of anti-Apartheid activists John Dube ('Boy Mvemve') of Umkhonto weSizwe and Onkgopotse Tiro of SASO. It has also been alleged that the Z-Squad specialised in interrogating South Africans who had been captured fighting