He was at all times surrounded by at least 22 armed bodyguards. Stern-faced with squawking earpieces, steel-rimmed sunglasses and bulging pockets, they were drawn from a team of 88 members of the presidential close-protection unit. Nobody knew if the intelligence services had detected any threat against the president, except from one of his own wives, Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, who was banished from Nkandla after she allegedly tried to kill him. The Sunday Times said that Russian intelligence agents had discovered that MaNtuli had been involved in a plot to poison Zuma. She has rejected the allegations against her and has never been charged with any wrongdoing.
It is at times like this that besieged leaders surround themselves with those they trust the most. In Zuma's case, it was his Rottweilers: his security cluster that had infiltrated almost every aspect of the state apparatus. One crucial piece on his political chessboard was still missing, however: a trusted and dependable spy boss.
That person was not the director-general of the SSA, Sonto Kudjoe. A former ambassador to Sweden and Egypt and educated in the Soviet Union, she was appointed as spy boss in 2013 but reportedly had a tense and unhappy relationship with David Mahlobo. In August 2016, the SSA declared that her contract had been terminated by “mutual agreement” and that she would pursue opportunities “elsewhere”. She was probably asked to resign and given a bag of money to keep her happy.
A month later, Mahlobo announced that Arthur Joseph Peter Fraser had been appointed the director-general of the SSA. The ministry said in a statement that Fraser had extensive experience in the intelligence community and had “astute managerial experience”. His complicity in a calamitous enterprise that had squandered hundreds of millions of rand of taxpayers' money was hardly mentioned by any newspaper, despite my story in City Press about PAN two years earlier.
When the Sunday Times asked the SSA for comment about Fraser and PAN, spokesperson Brian Dube said that Mahlobo was “concerned by the unlawful disclosure and possession of classified information that is flawed and inaccurate to unauthorized persons and or parties”. He threatened the newspaper that the possession of classified material was a “contravention of the provisions of the Intelligence Services Act and the Protection of Information Act” and that this conduct “undermines the integrity, objectivity and fairness and violates the rights of individuals”. Dube added that the IG did not make any findings against Fraser but recommended that the agency deal with his “non-compliance with some operational directives”. He said the matter was “considered closed”. The Sunday Times didn't publish the story.
It will not be the first or the last time that the SSA has abused security legislation in order to keep their dirty linen under wraps. Laurie Nathan says the intelligence services suffer from an “unreconstructed apartheid mentality” and remain “immersed in obsessive secrecy” which precludes accountability and oversight. They believe they are above the Constitution and think it is legitimate to break the rules. He says they are close to “rogue”.
I can basically go to prison or at least be prosecuted for what I have revealed to you about the PAN programme investigation. The SSA will argue that I have jeopardised national security and endangered the lives of agents. This is, of course, nonsense. I have not revealed any state secrets and have not endangered any operations that are genuinely in the interest of national security.
What I have revealed is an orgy of depravity and venality, and if there is any attempt to stop the publishing of this book, it will be because they do not want you to know about it.
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One of the first things that director-general Arthur Fraser did after taking office was to embark on a “roadshow” around the country to address staff and agents. He told them that the allegations against him in the media – the story that I had written in City Press – were nonsense. He reiterated that the IGI had found no criminal evidence against him and warned employees that the gossip must stop.
At the end of February 2017, he held a telephone conference with staff during which he announced a complete overhaul and restructuring of the agency. All the departmental heads would report directly to him. Staff refer to him as the “super-DG”.
One of his first appointments was that of his right-hand man at PAN, Graham Engel, as his second in command. Engel was for three years on suspension with full pay pending the outcome of the PAN investigation. He is referred to as “CE10” – the head of all internal intelligence and operations. He is in the all-powerful position as the national coordinator of all intelligence.
Insiders said they are concerned that so many of the former PAN managers and operatives have been brought back by Fraser. This group – and it includes Fraser and Engel – commanded and directed a failed intelligence structure and therefore they elicit no confidence.
When Fraser assumed his new role, an intelligence source warned me that it would just be a matter of time before the SSA exposed a tremendous threat to our national security. New spy bosses have to put their stamp of authority on the agency, and what better way than to sniff out a menace to the country's well-being.
Indeed. At the beginning of March 2017, David Mahlobo called a press briefing and said that South Africa was not an exception when it came to being a target of terrorists. He announced: “Attempts at regime change are happening. We know who does what.” He didn't give any further detail but assured the nation that counter-intelligence was dealing with the matter. “We do that work quietly because at the end of the day South Africa should never be a failed state. Our duty is to protect its sovereignty. We are committed to ensure that our country remains relatively safe and free of any attempts to destabilise it.”
Mahlobo repeated his claims in July 2017 when he said that talk of a regime change was not a scare tactic because South Africa already displayed some of the elements of a “colour revolution” – which in common parlance refers to non-violent or civil resistance such as protests and strikes.
My sources tell me that one of the “colour revolutions” that the SSA identified as promoting “regime change” was the Fees Must Fall student protests which spread across South African universities in 2016. Fraser and his analysts have concluded that these might at some stage deteriorate into an attempted coup d'état.
The SSA has also concluded that there are “foreign forces and their agents” that are attempting to destabilise the Zuma regime. Mahlobo has said that civil society is collaborating with foreign agents to subvert and undermine government. According to him, they had funding and surveillance equipment and some even had “funny names”.
Following Mahlobo's most recent “regime change” speech, an SSA source contacted me and said: “Haven't I told you? The message they are trying to convey is that we are in safe hands and should be grateful for a man like Arthur Fraser at the helm of our intelligence services.”
There is tremendous paranoia at the top. When, for instance, Zuma arrived at the ANC policy conference at the highly secured Nasrec showgrounds in Johannesburg in July 2017, he came with a cavalcade of 11 vehicles and 18 bodyguards. The president feels threatened, and his paranoia has filtered down through the ranks. Mahlobo showed clear signs of this, and at the same time insulted the intelligence of the nation, when he announced in a statement that the SSA was investigating allegations that public protector Thuli Madonsela and Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema were CIA agents. The claims were originally made by an American blog on the lunatic fringe with less than a hundred followers. Malema retorted: “This is a joke man, who belongs in a pre-school. There is no State Security in South Africa, we've got a group of clowns that call themselves Intelligence, with an intelligence-illiterate minister leading them.”
In September 2017, City Press, Rapport and News24 reported that the SSA had allegedly spent more than a billion rand in irregular expenditure over the past five years – but refused to account for it because its operations were “classified”. The newspapers said seven sources had confirmed that between the 2012/13 and 2015/16 financial years, Treasury repeatedly asked the SSA for clarity on its expenditure. But, according to the same sources, the SSA wouldn't say how this money was spent because its activities were “secret”.
It seems that old habits die hard.