EFF plays with fire as it burns spooks

The EFF is playing with fire on the intelligence report on the “rogue unit” in the SA Revenue Service (Sars) under Pravin Gordhan. After it won yesterday at the Equality Court in Johannesburg – which saw an application brought by Gordhan to have the report removed from court papers dismissed by Judge Roland Sutherland – the EFF put the report on its website.

The EFF’s argument is that the court judgment means the document is part of a court record and therefore in the public domain, so it cannot be classified or regarded as secret.

Whether the EFF’s view of legalities is correct remains to be seen ... but the government has tried to keep the document under wraps because it contains names and details of a number of intelligence operatives and sources, both inside South Africa and abroad, who will – as they say in the “spook” trade – be “burned” by the revelations and exposed.

For some, it may mean mere recall from an assignment; for others, it may well mean a death sentence.

And that is why the EFF is being reckless. This has become a point-scoring exercise against Gordhan, much as it was by the people who originally drew up the report as a way of deflecting the then Sars commissioner from the probes he was conducting. Point scoring which compromises national security – whatever your view of the incompetence, or lack thereof, of our country’s security apparatus – is something which should not be tolerated.

Sadly, government intelligence “assets” put at risk in this whole saga are collateral damage in a seedy drama where SA’s spy services are being used for political motives.

Not only that, it has become clear at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture that they are also being looted for personal gain.

The enemies of our country – internal and external – are laughing.