Spy agency must answer to litany of charges
TOP officials in intelligence agencies could be prosecuted for conducting illegal activities in the State Security Agency (SSA) for more than 10 years.
This was among the recommendations in the report on the review of the SSA released by President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday.
The report called for the name SSA to be changed to “reflect our democratic philosophy”.
The 100-page report was scathing, saying the SSA was redirected to serve other interests and was factionalised.
It said both the SSA and police crime intelligence were deeply involved in the ANC’S factional politics.
The report found that SSA was politicised from the Presidency down to managers.
The panel said when former president Jacob Zuma was warned about the influence of the Guptas, there was a change in the leadership at SSA.
It said failure to deal with state capture and the Gupta family “cost the country dearly”.
It wants the Principal Agent Network project investigated and those behind it prosecuted.
The report said it appeared that hundreds of millions of rands were abused.
Ramaphosa appointed a panel, chaired by former Cabinet member Sydney Mufamadi, in June to investigate SSA and conduct a review.
In the report, the panel recommended an overhaul of SAA, saying it should be split into two units, a foreign branch and a domestic branch.
It also found there were even orders from Cabinet members to conduct illegal activities and called for action against those behind the instructions and those who carried them out.
“Arising out of investigations following from this review and current or future investigations by the Inspector-general of Intelligence there should be firm consequences for those who issued manifestly illegal orders and those who wittingly carried them out,” it said.
It said ministers of state security and their advisors should undergo compulsory induction into the SSA to stop them from issuing illegal orders and the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee should be relocated to the Presidency to ensure compliance with prescripts of the intelligence units.
The report ordered an investigation into the withdrawal of the security clearance of Inspector-general of Intelligence Setlhomamaru Dintwe by former head of SSA Arthur Fraser.
This resulted in a legal fight between the two and Fraser was moved to the Department of Correctional Services.
The report found the merger of the National Intelligence Agency and SA Secret Service in 2009 to form SSA was illegal and breached the White Paper process.
“Initial establishment of SSA through a presidential proclamation was irregular due to the Constitutional requirement that the president can establish intelligence services through legislation,” said the report.
The panel said it was concerned by the lack of financial controls in SSA on special operations as cash was used in most of the transactions.
The panel cited the theft of R17million from SSA’S head office in Pretoria in 2015 and that no action was taken.
It said the auditor-general was forced to slap SSA with qualified audit opinions because he was not given access to financial records.