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True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

White Traitor | ANC

True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

SPYSCAPE

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.62.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

To her colleagues, South African journalist Sue Dobson appeared to be a pro-Apartheid conservative. Nothing could have been further from the truth. In fact, she was a trained paramilitary and secret agent, infiltrating the government's propaganda wing on behalf of the African National Congress. Vanessa Kirby relates an incredible story of bravery in the face of bigotry. How hard would YOU fight for a better future? From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Leo Hornak. Music by Nick Ryan.

Transcript

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0:00.0

brought to you by Aspire Mungfrent on ITVX, a six-part drama of friendship and betrayal,

0:08.5

starring Damien Lewis and Guy Pearce. The coldest war is within. Aspire Mungfrent,

0:16.6

stream free on ITVX.

0:20.2

Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to True Spies. Week by week, mission by mission. You'll hear the

0:37.0

true stories behind the world's greatest espionage operations. You'll meet the people who

0:44.2

navigate this secret world. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their

0:54.0

position? This is True Spies. We speak about the honey trap. The honey trap is not something

1:01.9

frivolous. It's probably the most dangerous thing you could do. If you're getting attached,

1:08.2

you have to retreat. This is True Spies. Episode 86. White Trader. Undercover in the heart of a partied.

1:21.9

What does it take to survive undercover? Without backup, at the centre of a hostile regime,

1:28.1

for years at a time. Doing what I did, I learnt the hard way that I had to look after myself,

1:35.8

and that nobody could look after me, except me. In the late 1980s, Sue Dobson was known to

1:46.0

friends and colleagues as a successful white South African journalist. She was also assumed by all

1:52.2

who knew her to be a firm supporter of a partied. The system of racial discrimination that privileged

1:59.0

South Africa's white minority over all other races. But Sue had held a secret for years. She was

2:07.6

working for the other side, a traitor to the regime and to her race, and a traitor with the

2:15.9

training to kill. I have a healthy respect for weaponry. I think that's what determines whether

2:22.7

you're going to live or die, whether you walk away or the other guy walks away. And on one

2:28.2

occasion in 1989, she realizes she has a chance to use that training. You have to remember that we

2:36.5

were at war, and this person is actively an enemy. It's an opportunity that arises one night in a

2:43.8

luxurious house in Windhoek, the capital of South African controlled Namibia. It's past midnight,

2:50.8

the damp heat of the day still lingering, undeterred by the lazy spin of a ceiling fan. This house is

...

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