About this site

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Barnard, Niel

Barnard was born in 1949 in Otjiwarongo, in the northern part of South West Africa/Namibia.  He graduated from the University of the Orange Free State with an Honours degree and a Master's degree in history and political science, and then completed a doctorate in International Politics.

He subsequently studied at the Georgetown Centre for Strategic and International Studies for six months in 1979.

Barnard became head of the Department of Political Science at the University of the OFS in 1975. In 1979 he became head of the NIS (Department of National Security) where he remained until January 1992.  At that time he came Director General of the Department of Constitutional Development, after which he was appointed as Director General of the Western Cape.

This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. Return to theThis resource is hosted by the site.