SSA funds diverted for ANC factional battles
MILLIONS of rand meant for the gathering of crime intelligence were allegedly siphoned from the State Security Agency (SSA) to fund factions within the ANC and “buy” votes at the party’s 2017 Nasrec Conference where President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as its leader.
This was one of the startling allegations made by Inspector General of Intelligence Setlhomamaru Dintwe when he testified at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture yesterday.
Dintwe also implicated Bo Mbindwane – an adviser to former police minister Fikile Mbalula – of attempting to irregularly procure “signal grabbers” ahead of the conference.
These signal grabbers, he said, were to be used by spies stationed in Soweto to intercept all electronic communications that would take place at the conference.
He said he was approached by Mbindwane so that he could influence a certain Crime Intelligence divisional head to sign off on the request to purchase the spying devices at about R210 million.
Dintwe said when he found out that the grabber was to be bought from a “shady” company, he told Mbindwane he would no longer be involved in the issue. The procurement was then halted by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), he said.
Dintwe said it was found that the company inflated its prices and there was information that the rest of the money would be used to “buy votes at Nasrec”.
“It sounded probable, and that is why we intervened because the grabber average price is R7 million, but in this case, they wanted R45 million to buy one grabber,” said Dintwe.
He also spoke of how millions of rand were stolen from the SSA by officials who blatantly flouted financial controls.
Dintwe told Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that their findings showed these monies could have also been used to fund terrorism.
“Our findings are that these monies have been used for other things that, in fact, could affect our national security adversely.
“For example, some of that money could be used to fuel political tensions. There is evidence in our possession that some of those monies were used to finance a particular faction within the governing party, and in other jurisdictions you find that these monies can also be used to fund terrorism,” Dintwe said.
Among his allegations, Dintwe also lifted the lid on how Intelligence Minister Ayanda Dlodlo irregularly approved the appointment of 26 officials to management positions, despite acting director-general Loyiso Jafta’s refusal.
With regards to the SSA cadet programme, Dintwe said ministers and officials ran their own recruitment and appointments so each one had agents loyal to them.
He told Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that children, family members and girlfriends of political leaders and senior managers were recruited and given bursaries without any regard to following proper criteria.
He said this flouting of procedures also resulted in former State Security minister Ronnie Kasrils disowning some 40 of the cadets after he went through a list and recognised the nepotism.