A strange fracas unfolded last week as the director-general of the department of international relations & co-operation, Zane Dangor, took to a news website to demand an explanation from the UK government for travel advice it issued to its citizens.
The nub of the warning was that “terrorists are very likely to carry out attacks in SA”. Dangor appeared agitated last week, asking via News24 to be told “where does this credible threat come from? ... If you have credible information, give it to us,” he said.
It’s a perplexing business because the warning has been in place since 2022, as we reported at the time, and was related to a specific threat US intelligence services picked up. In other words, the UK and US intelligence services shared details of the threat and there has been dialogue between department of international relations & co-operation and the US and UK on this issue.
If the warning is 18 months old, what gives? It is reasonable to worry that this topic has been revived for other reasons, as a general function of SA’s sometime bellicose approach to Western countries, because the director-general was unaware of the warning from 2022, or because the optics play well with some South Africans at a useful time.
Whatever it might be, weaponising intelligence reports shared in good faith by friendly countries is never a good idea for any reason, as it can deter future collaboration on intelligence that can save lives. Did Dangor not know about the 2022 warning, or is he up to something else?
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