President Cyril Ramaphosa’s failure to clean out the intelligence services, despite knowing since at least December 2018 that it had been subverted by his predecessor Jacob Zuma, was further compounded by his lack of action thereafter to protect agents investigating the rot, the Zondo commission on state capture heard on Thursday.
Ramaphosa was facing a second day of questioning at the commission where he conceded that he had not done what was necessary and that it was also “a reasonable proposition” that the events of July that involved violence, looting and “insurrection” were linked to elements that had been trained and armed by the State Security Agency (SSA).
Ramaphosa announced last week that he was disbanding the ministry of intelligence and relocating the agency to fall under his office, after the dramatic intelligence and security failures during the riots and looting. He told the commission that the link between rogue intelligence agents and the insurrection was now being investigated.
“It is finally on my radar screen, including the accounting of those people who were given arms [by the SSA] that were never accounted for. It is part of an intensive investigative process that is under way,” said Ramaphosa.
But advocate Paul Pretorius, who was leading evidence on Ramaphosa’s role in relation to the intelligence services, argued that his neglect went beyond his failure to implement the high level report by former intelligence minister Sydney Mufamadi that he received in December 2018. He was also passive when an internal SSA investigation, which exposed the existence of the rogue elements and how they were armed and trained, was shut down by intelligence minister Ayanda Dlodlo after the agents involved gave evidence to the commission.
The Mufamadi report of 2018 recommended that both criminal and disciplinary processes be initiated with regard to then-intelligence director-general Arthur Fraser and then-intelligence minister David Mahlobo. However, Ramaphosa did not follow the recommendations. He shifted Fraser to head the correctional services department and appointed Mahlobo a deputy minister in his administration.
Asked by Pretorius whether he did not have sufficient information to deem the two unsuitable for appointment, Ramaphosa said he was waiting for the Zondo commission report to be handed to him before he took action.
“I’m waiting for a more complete picture,” was Ramaphosa’s response.
One of the actions that followed from the Mufamadi report was the establishment of Operation Veza within the SSA, which investigated events at the agency in more detail. Two agents conducting Operation Veza — Miss K and Mr Y — gave shocking evidence to the commission in January, in which it was revealed that a directorate of special operations, headed by former agent Thulani Dlomo, recruited, trained and armed a group of people, outside the SSA, to act as the personal protection force for Zuma.
Referring to Ms K’s evidence, Pretorius said that the co-workers, on instructions from special operations, had received “a formal allocation of arms”.
“These were distributed to the co-workers and remain unaccounted for. They have not been recovered,” said Pretorius.
After the agents appeared at the Zondo commission, Dlodlo removed them from the posts, the investigation was stopped and the evidence placed under lock and key. The acting director-general, Loyiso Jafta, who also gave evidence, was removed from the acting director-general position.
While Ramaphosa agreed with Pretorius that the investigation would now have to be restarted, he said it had not been entirely scuttled. The documents from Operation Veza had been secured, he said.
Ramaphosa said that he was not familiar with the circumstances around Ms K and Mr Y being taken off the investigation. He said that Jafta’s appointment had expired and according to regulations he could not be reappointed. Those taken off the job, would be brought back, he said.
Ramaphosa said the commission, which he had earlier described as “a big washing machine”, would help the government get to grips with these problems in the future.
“A lot got lost in translation, there was a lack of co-ordination which got in the way. But I am happy that the documents [from Operation Veza] are under lock and key. They are there and the processes that need to unfold, will unfold,” he said.
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