Hendrik van den Bergh

General Hendrik Johan van den Bergh, SSA (27 November 191416 August 1997) was a South African police official most famous for founding the Bureau of State Security (B.O.S.S.), an intelligence agency created on 16 May 1969 to coordinate military and domestic intelligence for the government as well as to suppress political dissidents. He was known as "Tall Hendrik" on account of his height .

Although van den Bergh denied B.O.S.S.' use of hit squads against its enemies, he is nevertheless remembered for sanctioning the use of torture, assassinations, and other tactics against the government's enemies,

B.O.S.S. became increasingly powerful as the 1970s progressed, much to the dismay of Botha; by some accounts, the organisation now wielded more influence than the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs. The following year, Botha, who had succeeded Vorster as prime minister, called for van den Bergh's resignation, and in 1980, B.O.S.S. was replaced by a new agency, the National Intelligence Service, and van den Bergh was replaced by Dr. Niël Barnard.

In the aftermath of the scandal, van den Bergh retired and faded from public view to take up chicken farming. Reportedly, he was working on his memoirs in the 1980s, but abandoned the project under pressure from the government. He also resigned as a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond.

Van den Bergh died at Bronkhorstspruit, Pretoria, aged 82, in 1997. He was married twice.