Super spies to shake things up
RETIRED apartheid-era state security top brass have joined forces with the ANC’s struggle-era intelligence elite to form a consulting company to cater for the needs of big business.
Foresight Advisory Services was officially launched on Wednesday and, for the first time in SA, business now has an above-the-board channel to rent-an-elite-spook.
In founding the consultancy, liberation struggle top spy turned State Security Agency (SSA) head, Gibson Njenje, has established a “dream-team” of super-spies from yesteryear. The directors include:
Dr Lukas Daniel “Niel” Barnard, who was appointed by former president PW Botha to head apartheid-era National Intelligence Service.
Barnard was involved in guiding former president Nelson Mandela through negotiations with the National Party in the period leading to democracy.
George Fivaz, who was appointed commissioner of the South African Police by Mandela in 1995 and has been running his own forensic investigations firm since retiring from state employment in 2000.
Moe Shaik, brother of President Jacob Zuma’s former financial adviser, Schabir, who had a long history in underground structures of the ANC and headed the foreign branch of the SSA.
Mzuvukile Jeff Maqetuka, another top ANC spy who was director-general of the National Intelligence Agency and national co-ordinator of intelligence.
The track record of its board raises the questions: how exactly will Foresight Advisory operate differently to SA’s wellestablished security, risk and strategy advisory industry and how far will they go to give prospective clients a competitive edge?
The firm was established in response to the Marikana tragedy, which exposed the inadequacy of existing security companies “to provide the intelligence, foresight and early warning mechanisms” to avert such a disaster, says Njenje.
The team also maintains that there are shortcomings in the techniques used by existing consultancies to asses market conditions before entry by big business into new African territories.
“These are well-travelled and connected individuals, especially on the African continent. Their network of contacts traverses political, diplomatic, intelligence and security, business and social spectrum,” says Njenje.
In short, Foresight believes it has the expertise to collect and analyse market information better than existing players, and to open doors by introducing clients to the right people.
All information gathered would be obtained legally and ethically, says Fivas.
An intelligence professional says Foresight will bring to SA’s commercial intelligence community an “integrity, which, let’s be honest, does not exist at the moment”.