Pressure on president to act on offenders
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has come under pressure from labour federations and civil society groups to act against those implicated in the report by the high-level review panel into the State Security Agency (SSA).
This happened as former president Jacob Zuma took to social media to claim to have not been approached by the panel led by former minister Sydney Mufamadi.
“I have never been asked any questions by this committee. This committee has 2 well known Apartheid spies,” Zuma wrote in a tweet.
“I’ve never sold out nor written letters to the SB. I feel nothing when apartheid spies call me corrupt. I hope people are not opening a can of worms which they might regret,” he said.
Yesterday, Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said they noted with concern that SSA was used to fight ANC internal battles in the build-up to the ANC conferences.
“The federation calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa to act against all those who are implicated in this report and also work to cleanse the SSA of these rogue elements,” Pamla said.
He also said the labour federation was against any use of state apparatus against private citizens and civil society organisations for political purposes.
“We demand that the looted monies that were wasted by the SSA be recovered and that all the implicated thieves be prosecuted.”
Although the report did not name persons, Pamla named former state security minister David Mahlobo as among those that “should be held accountable for the deterioration, corruption and anarchy that took place at SSA under his watch”.
The SA Federation of Trade Unions has also called on Ramaphosa to dismiss Department of Correctional Services’ Arthur Fraser and Home Affairs Minister Siyabonga Cwele with immediate effect.
Fraser was previously head of SSA and Cwele a minister of state security during a period covered by the report.
Civil society organisation Right2Know Campaign also urged Ramaphosa to implement all of the recommendations of the review panel.
It cited as a priority the recommendation that “the president instructs the appropriate law enforcement bodies, oversight institutions and internal disciplinary bodies to investigate all manifest breaches of the law, regulations and other prescripts in the SSA … with a view to instituting, where appropriate, criminal and/or disciplinary prosecutions.”
Right2Know said the report confirmed the suspicions they had for a long time that the State Security Agency had targeted it specifically.
“We firmly believe that these rogue securocrats are a threat to our democracy and they must be dealt with accordingly. As such, we demand that those who engaged in these criminal activities and gross abuses are named, investigated and disciplined.”
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko could not be reached for comment.
Her phone went unanswered and she did not respond to text messages.
Mahlobo could also not be reached as his phone was on voicemail just like Cwele’s, whose spokesperson Siya Qoza asked questions to be sent to the minister.