Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
DA uses reports in Fraser case
Pauw’s book contains claims
NEWSPAPER reports and revelations in Jacques Pauw’s book The President’s Keepers form the cornerstone of the DA’s litigation to reverse the appointment of former spy boss Arthur Fraser as correctional services head.
The DA made an urgent application in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday to review President Cyril Ramaphosa’s April 17 decision to appoint Fraser as Commissioner of Correctional Services.
DA federal executive chairman James Selfe provided various published newspaper and online articles as part of the evidence against Fraser.
Many of the articles were sourced from news sites including IOL and TimesLive. In one of the articles, which appeared on the Huffington Post website in April 2018, Fraser was labelled a “spy who saved Zuma”. The article claimed this resulted in former president Jacob Zuma appointing him as director-general of the State Security Agency in 2016.
The DA also provided the court with an article which appeared in the City Press newspaper penned by Pauw. The article revealed that in 2010, the then inspector general of intelligence, the late Faith Radebe, forwarded a report to then intelligence minister David Mahlobo which “revealed that hundreds of millions of rand were sunk into a slush fund intended to improve South Africa’s intelligence capabilities through the creation of the “Principal Agent Network” – a covert project set up in 2007 to strengthen the National Intelligence Agency’s capacity to collect intelligence.
The report further alleged that the money was spent on luxury cars, properties and farms for spies and their families.
Similar allegations were set out in detail in Pauw’s book – which remain subject to a legal challenge lodged by Fraser against the former journalist.
Pauw wrote: “Some of the cars had been unused for almost four years. There were other Fraser family members working for PAN. Arthur’s son Lyle became the floor manager at the warehouse while his mother, Ms CF Fraser, was also a PAN agent.
“Both Barry and Ms Fraser were board members of a community based organisation that dealt with conflict resolution at schools. PAN contributed R10 million towards the organisation although it had nothing to do with national security.”
Selfe said all these reports were handed to the Hawks for further investigation and the National Prosecuting Authority for prosecution.
Ramaphosa, Fraser, the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Michael Masutha and the Deputy Minister of Correctional Services Thabang Makwetla are expected to file responding affidavits.