Kasrils to ask for document with allegedly forged signature

Despite Arthur Fraser no longer working for the State Security Agency (SSA), former intelligence services minister Ronnie Kasrils will not let go of allegations that the former spy boss forged his signature to establish the allegedly illegal Principal Agent Network (PAN).

Kasrils said in an interview with Business Day on Tuesday that he had met his lawyers last week and instructed them to write to Inspector-General of Intelligence Setlhomamaru Dintwe and the new SSA acting director-general, Loyiso Jafta, on the matter.

Fraser was shifted from the helm of the SSA to the post of national commissioner of correctional services two days before he was set to go head-tohead with Dintwe on April 19.

Dintwe had filed an urgent high court application challenging the move by Fraser to revoke his security clearance amid an investigation in which Fraser was directly implicated.

The urgent part of the application was dropped after Dintwe had provisionally regained his security clearance following the shifting of Fraser to the correctional services department.

Dintwe had said in his founding affidavit that allegations being investigated against Fraser included that he had fraudulently copied Kasrils’s signature to establish PAN.

Dintwe also alleged that through PAN, Fraser had improperly awarded tenders and contracts to people associated with his family, as part of a process that cost taxpayers more than R1bn. These allegations are contained in Jacques Pauw’s best-selling book, The President’s Keepers.

Kasrils said he would ask Dintwe to provide him with a copy of the document at the centre of the claim about the fraudulent signature. He would also write to Jafta to inquire about the fate of a 2010 inquiry into alleged fraud at the former National Intelligence Agency when Fraser was the deputy director-general of operations.

Additionally, Kasrils said he would ask for any information Pauw could have been referring to when writing about the alleged abuse of his signature.

“At the time [in 2010] I can reveal that I did identify it as my signature, [but that] one doesn’t know with technology what can happen to my signature, which can be utilised on other documents,” Kasrils said.

Pauw’s allegations should be tested in court, Kasrils said. “I would like to be informed about all aspects of that issue relating to my signature relating to PAN’s flow of funding,” he said.