Mo tells of spies, lies

Riyaz “Mo” Shaik, former intelligence head and brother of Schabir Shaik, yesterday gave the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, a glimpse into the inner workings of SA’s intelligence structures.

Schabir was found to have a corrupt relationship with Jacob Zuma and convicted of fraud in 2005.

Mo used two organograms to illustrate how intelligence was structured between 1994 and 1997, and 2010 and 2019, in a bid to demonstrate how these structures had become “undermined”.

Shaik said he only discovered that he was to be appointed head of the foreign branch of the State Security Agency (SSA) in 2009, when he arrived for what he thought was just a meeting with then state security minister Siyabonga Cwele.

He and others were briefed and then led out to a press conference at which his and other appointments were announced.

In an interview ahead of his testimony, Shaik said the inspector-general of intelligence, who recommended that Pravin Gordhan and others involved in the socalled SA Revenue Service (Sars) rogue unit should be criminally charged, had no jurisdiction.

He claimed some political interference may have taken place and laid the blame at Cwele’s feet.

Shaik told the commission yesterday a minister of intelligence was unnecessary and intelligence should report directly to the president.

“When you appoint a minister in intelligence you are automatically making him ‘first among peers’. That minister is bound to know things about other ministers,” he said.

Shaik also testified how Zuma and Cwele prevented the SSA from interrogating the Gupta family, and accused them of ignoring “serious” red flags, such as warnings from the US ambassador to SA over suspected Iranian funding of the Shiva Uranium mine in 2010. Shaik said Zuma went as far as assuring him that there was no such funding.

He said he “grew close” to Zuma. “I reported to Jacob Zuma in his capacity as the ANC’s head of intelligence.

“I remained a firm supporter for many years,” he said.