/ 2 November 2007

All quiet on NIA boss front

A veil of silence has been drawn over allegations that National Intelligence Agency (NIA) boss Manala Manzini abused his wife.

The Mail & Guardian reported last week that the ANC Women’s League was planning to discuss the issue with Manzini’s wife, Mavivi Mayakayaka-Manzini, deputy chairperson of the league, at a national working committee meeting on Monday.

The abuse apparently occurred when Mayakayaka-Manzini confronted her husband about an affair he allegedly had with a junior NIA colleague.

The league denied this week that it wanted to get involved and said the issue had not been raised at the NWC meeting.

‘We regard it as a private matter and we are not doing anything about it,” said spokesperson Charlotte Lobe.

Mayakayaka-Manzini told the M&G the matter was not discussed by the league this week and she did not want to comment on whether she would be taking further action.

The league has decided to leave the matter in her hands.

‘She is empowered enough to know what she can do if she wants to,” said Lobe.

Another source told the M&G the difficulty was that no formal charge had been laid and therefore no investigation could take place.

‘She is the one to give the go-ahead, otherwise the women’s league cannot do anything,” the source said.

The M&G was told that senior officials within the ANC, including secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe, were aware of the claim, but the ANC said on Thursday that no correspondence had been received from the league on the issue.

Besides her league position, Mayakayaka-Manzini is head of the international desk at ANC headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg.