Zuma ‘ignored’ warnings on top spy
President gave Fraser the nod at SSA after intelligence chief had advised against it
When President Jacob Zuma appointed Arthur Fraser South Africa’s top spy last year, he ignored two official reports, both of which were a devastating indictment of Fraser’s leadership of a wasteful, fraudulent and abortive agents’ programme.
In the reports, the inspector-general of intelligence called on the minister of state security to conduct a forensic investigation “to establish the flow of monies” to determine possible culpability of agents and managers. The reports were both secret and kept under wraps until now.
In them, the then inspector-general of intelligence, Advocate Faith Radebe, probed the Principal Agent Network that Fraser, then the deputy director-general of operations at the State Security Agency, set up in the late 2000s.
Radebe found that “in the course of employment, PAN members were tasked to conduct illegal activities without securing proper authorisation”.
She said this noncompliance or violation required further investigation, but Zuma and then state security minister David Mahlobo ignored her advice and appointed Fraser director-general of the SSA last September.
Mahlobo, who announced the appointment, praised Fraser for his “astute managerial experience”, despite Radebe hearing evidence that “financial controls were nonexistent” and that up to R10-million in cash at a time was drawn for the unit under which the agent network fell.
Ignored recommendations
Fraser’s abortive PAN project was exposed in The President’s Keepers, in which it is claimed that up to R1-billion of taxpayers’ money was wasted on the project.
The reports, however, only came to light after the book was published.
The inspector-general has oversight over the intelligence services and is constitutionally mandated to protect the public from abuses by the intelligence services.
Its reports are not made public and it does not engage with the media.
Among the documents the inspectorgeneral scrutinised was an affidavit from Fraser’s predecessor as SSA director-general, Sonto Gladys Kudjoe. It was also handed to Mahlobo.
Kudjoe said in her affidavit, made in April 2014, that an audit of the PAN project “indicated a possibility of acts of theft, fraud, forgery and uttering of an amount exceeding R200-million”.
Kudjoe resigned in August last year following a reportedly “tense” relationship with Mahlobo.
Zuma appointed Mahlobo state security minister in May 2014 and the reports were handed to him the next month.
He ignored the recommendations and appointed Fraser spy boss.
According to The President’s Keepers, Fraser addressed SSA staff throughout South Africa and assured them that the inspectorgeneral’s investigation had exonerated him from any wrongdoing.
The SSA itself has been pushing a similar line. Last November, agency spokesman Brian Dube told the Sunday Times that the inspector-general “did not make any criminal findings” against Fraser.
Dube said the inspector-general recommended that the agency deal with “certain noncompliance of some operational directives”.
He said the report had subsequently been tabled before the joint standing committee on intelligence in parliament and the matter was “considered closed”.
Dube, confronted with the reports on Friday, said the SSA and Fraser “will not be commenting”.
He later said the issues raised “form part of the comprehensive matter which is being investigated criminally”. He confirmed that he referred to the leaking and publication of classified documents.
Mahlobo, now energy minister, did not respond to questions — including whether he informed Zuma of the allegations against Fraser.
His spokeswoman, Nomvula Khalo, referred the Sunday Times to the SSA, while Dube referred the paper to the Department of Energy.
The Presidency did not respond to requests for comment.
Implosion
The IGI is scathing about the “complete lack of action on the part of the SSA and by extension the minister in dealing with the socalled perpetrators in any decisive manner and to recoup what was possible to be recovered”.
Radebe said the investigation into the PAN commenced several years ago yet no action of note had been taken.
“There is no plausible explanation for the delay as good governance dictates that at the very least action could have been taken by SSA management on matters investigated and finalised by the various teams.”
The inspector-general, who spoke of the “implosion” of the project in her report, heard evidence from the former chief financial officer of the SSA, Mkuseli Apleni (now home affairs director-general), on how the Covert Support Unit, under which the PAN fell, drew advances of up to R10-million at a time.
“The CFO was not supposed to make inquiries as to what the money was spent on and how they were spent.” Apleni told her financial controls were nonexistent and that he was “always told that he ought not to know about the covert environment”.
Audit indicated a possibility of theft, fraud . . . of more than R200-million Sonto Gladys Kudjoe Former SSA director-general