US stirs fresh Isis fears in SA
I am innocent, says man among four named and sanctioned as extremists
● Siraaj Miller is a family man from Mitchells Plain in Cape Town, a taxi owner trying to fix a broken-down Toyota Quantum, and a patriotic South African who braais on Heritage Day.
On Wednesday he was named on TV news channels in the same breath as Islamic State (Isis), Mozambique and terrorism.
He has watched helplessly as his financial accounts were closed one by one following sanctions imposed against him by the US Treasury department.
It also acted against Durban businessman and terrorism suspect Farhad Hoomer and two Johannesburg men, Abdella Hussein Abadigga from Ethiopia and Peter Charles Mbaga from Tanzania.
As SA gets ready to send fresh troops to northern Mozambique, where several South Africans, including a special forces operator, have been killed in an insurgency waged by a group designated Isis-Mozambique, the Sunday Times found Miller at his Lentegeur home in Mitchells Plain.
According to the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac), Miller, Hoomer, Mbaga and Abadigga are Isis and Isis-Mozambique “financial facilitators”.
“Isis members and associates in South Africa are playing an increasingly central role in facilitating the transfer of funds from the top of the Isis hierarchy to branches across Africa,” said a US Treasury statement, adding that the four men had provided support for transfers or served as leaders of Isis cells in SA.
“Isis has recently attempted to expand its influence in Africa through large-scale operations in areas where government control is limited. Isis branches in Africa rely on local fundraising schemes such as theft, extortion of local populations and kidnapping for ransom, as well as financial support from the Isis hierarchy,” Ofac said.
In front of his modest house this week, one of Miller’s three taxis stood mounted on a tree stump, a man with a furrowed brow trying to fix it.
Miller, who is accused of training Isis members to conduct robberies to obtain funds, invited the Sunday Times into his home and explained his predicament.
“The other day I was watching TV with my family, and it was after 9pm when I saw a friend phoning me … normally I don’t take calls after 9pm. After another few times of me not answering he sent a message on WhatsApp.
“I was like, ‘Woah, what is this?’ And I’m shocked, I mean the Hawks never visited me, the police never contacted me,” he said.
After the sanctions were published on the US Treasury department website on Tuesday, South African financial institutions wasted no time in freezing Miller’s accounts.
US Treasury undersecretary Brian Nelson said the intention was to “disrupt and expose key Isis supporters who exploit South Africa’s financial system to facilitate funding for Isis branches and networks across Africa”.
According to the US Treasury, Miller leads a group of Isis supporters in Cape Town. Apart from the alleged robbery training, it says he has helped to arrange safe houses.
The departments of finance and of justice & correctional services released a joint statement this week saying South African authorities have engaged with US authorities regarding the sanctions.
“Further details on such engagements and related investigations cannot be revealed at this stage,” said the statement.
“As a member of the Financial Action Task Force, South Africa is committed to enforcing highest standards to counter money-laundering and the financing of terrorism, and fully supports the criminal justice authorities in preventing and investigating any transgression of the laws of South Africa, and will ensure full adherence to international commitments.
“Co-operating with and providing support and assistance to other states and relevant international and regional organisations to that end is a critical component of protecting our constitutional democracy against terrorist and related activities. We assure all residents of South Africa that government is committed to ensuring the safety of all.”
Miller said he has never sent any money to Isis in Mozambique and he has yet to be contacted by any law enforcement authorities about the allegations.
Asked if he supported the group, he said: “If the US could spread lies about me, they could do the same thing with other people. Another country comes to South Africa, and as a South African citizen they say, ‘No, we’re going to sanction you.’
“Not once did they come to me and say we’re doing it based on this and based on that. I more than welcome the authorities to go through all my bank transactions and financials. I am 100% willing to comply and co-operate with all levels of authorities to clear my name.”
Miller said he had probably emerged on the radar of the US authorities after a chance meeting with Hoomer at a fish and chips restaurant in Hout Bay. “I recognised his accent is a Durban accent and I did my [Islamic] studies in Newcastle, so we started talking about KwaZulu-Natal and it took me back to those years.”
He was not specific about the date of the meeting, but said “it wasn’t years ago”. He said he asked Hoomer to sponsor a carpet for a madrassa (Islamic school) he was building in his neighbourhood.
Hoomer gave him R19,000, he said. But by that time Hoomer had been in the news for all the wrong reasons.
“In 2018, South African authorities arrested Hoomer along with his associates for their involvement in a plan to deploy improvised incendiary devices near a mosque and commercial and retail buildings,” the US Treasury statement said.
This was a reference to firebombing incidents at the Durban July and Woolworths stores in KwaZulu-Natal in 2018, for which Hoomer and 11 others were arrested and later charged under terrorism legislation. They were released after the court struck the matter off the roll.
“Between 2017 and 2018, Hoomer helped organise and begin the operations of a Durban, South Africabased Isis cell,” the US Treasury said.
“In his role, Hoomer claimed to have recruited and trained cell members and was in contact with members of Isis-Democratic Republic of the Congo and Isis supporters throughout South Africa.
“Hoomer raised funds through kidnap-for-ransom operations and extortion of major businesses, which provided more than R1m in revenue for his cell.”
The US Treasury said that while he was out on R200,000 bail after his 2018 arrest, Hoomer attended the court case of alleged Isis acolytes Sayfudeen Aslam del Vecchio‚ his wife Fatima Patel and their Malawian boarder, Ahmad “Bazooka” Mussa, who are accused of the 2018 kidnap and murder of British botanists Rodney and Rachel Saunders.
Hoomer sat in the public gallery on at least three occasions.
Miller said he spoke to Hoomer after the news broke this week and the Durban man told him he may need to get legal advice. Miller said he would have to apply for legal aid because he lived “from hand to mouth”, his only income coming from his three taxis.
He said he was worried about how he was going to pay for his children’s school fees when all his bank accounts were frozen.
When the Sunday Times visited Hoomer’s home in Sydenham, Durban, a woman who answered the doorbell said Hoomer was “not around.”
Pressed to elaborate, she said: “You know the current situation; he is not around. That is all I am saying.”
According to the US, Hoomer owns three properties, some of which were “used to sponsor the cell’s meetings and operational activities”.
The Sunday Times visited four properties that are registered in Hoomer’s name on Friday and established that he sold one of them 15 years ago.
One of the properties, in Nugget Road, Reservoir Hills, is the house where police arrested Hoomer and 11 others in a raid in October 2018 — and found an emaciated and malnourished foreigner chained in the basement.
Among the charges against the 12 was an attack earlier in the year at the Imam Hussain Mosque in Verulam in which a worshipper was killed.
The Sunday Times also visited addresses in Johannesburg listed for Abadigga. At one address, in Mayfair, Ali Hussein Aba Duula — an Ethiopian — said he had been living in the house for four years.
Before he moved in, the house had been used as a madrassa, he said.
“There were lots of people who used to live here when it was a madrassa. He [Abadigga] could have lived here then. It is now just my family who live here. In the time that we have been here, you are the first to ask about this man. I know nothing about him.”
Religious leaders in Mayfair, who were shown a photograph of Abadigga, said they did not know him. “He has never come to our mosques or madrassas. We do not know him as being part of our community,” one said.
People living and working at the other two addresses — a medical centre and a restaurant — said they had never heard of him.
The US Treasury did not identify Mbaga’s address and the Sunday Times was unable to trace him.
Hawks spokesperson Brig Thandi Mbambo said the directorate had been informed about the US sanctions on the four men. “The matter forms part of an ongoing investigation, which will be divulged once the alleged suspects have been brought before the court of law.”
The Verulam investigation continues, she said. “All leads and evidence are followed to ensure success. The Hawks are co-operating with all other foreign law enforcement agencies in the fight against transnational crimes.”
If the US could spread lies about me, they could do the same thing with other people. Another country comes to South Africa, and as a South African citizen they say, ‘No, we’re going to sanction you.’
Siraaj Miller