Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils this week lashed out at Billy Masetlha, the director general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), over Masetlha’s “attack on the integrity” of the Scorpions.
Kasrils fired the broadside at his DG in a statement released to the Mail & Guardian. While he remained silent on the underlying disagreement between the two — the minister wants the Scorpions to remain with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), but Masetlha wants the elite unit redeployed to the police — Kasrils clearly rebuked Masetlha for the way he had attacked the Scorpions in submissions to the Khampepe commission.
Kasrils’ comments included that he would “never launch attacks on the integrity of our own government structures nor [foreign] intelligence agencies”. He implied that this was exactly what Masetlha had done. Masetlha chose not to respond to this.
Masetlha last week told the commission, which is holding public hearings on the location and mandate of the Scorpions, that the unit had become a threat to national security because it “relies on and interacts with foreign intelligence agencies”.
Tensions between the country’s security agencies, long whispered, have spilled into full public view before Judge Sisi Khampepe in Pretoria.
The extent of the divisions at political level is illustrated by the fact that members of Cabinet have adopted contrary views — and that two of them have differed with their own top officials.
The main protagonists, from the outset, have been NPA head Vusi Pikoli and police commissioner Jackie Selebi. Pikoli has defended the retention of the Scorpions as the investigative arm of the NPA, while Selebi wants its investigators redeployed to the South African Police Service (SAPS) — which would mean the end of the unit in its present form.
Not unexpectedly, Selebi and the SAPS’s submission to the commission was supported by their minister responsible, Charles Nqakula of Safety and Security. But Minister of Justice Brigitte Mabandla — responsible for the NPA — last week shocked by coming down on the side of the Scorpions’ enemies. She said the “diminished crime threat” and “irretrievable breakdown” in the relationship between the SAPS and the Scorpions meant it was opportune to consider the latter’s relocation. Pikoli later branded Mabandla’s remarks “unfortunate”.
A different set of tensions emerged bit by bit last week, based on differences of opinion within the intelligence establishment. One of the first submissions at the public hearings was that of Masetlha, delivered by NIA counsel George Bizos.
The veteran advocate’s rendition of the spy boss’s submission was generally favourable to the Scorpions. But a comparison of Masetlha’s written submission and Bizos’s presentation shows that even these two were at odds. Bizos repeatedly departed from Masetlha’s text to defend the present location of the Scorpions, while Masetlha, on the balance, favoured redeployment to the police.
Masetlha’s submission focused on the degree to which he said the Scorpions had developed an intelligence capacity — rather than relying for crime intelligence on NIA and the police — and the unaccountability and threats to national security he said this had engendered.
This contradiction between the counsel and his client went largely unnoticed until Masetlha issued this statement: “Advocate Bizos was briefed by the NIA and will not act contrary to the client’s instructions. For the record, the NIA strongly argues for oversight and control over the activities of the DSO [the Scorpions]. In NIA’s view such oversight and control can only be fully exercised through the DSO’s relocation to the SAPS.”
At the weekend, the brunt of Masetlha’s antipathy to the Scorpions became apparent when City Press published some details of an earlier, confidential version of his submission. This version expanded significantly on the national security theme, complete with allegations that contact between Scorpions members, multinational forensic firms and foreign agencies was improper.
Among other things, Masetlha accused former M&G journalist Ivor Powell, now with the Scorpions, of having passed documents to a foreign agent. He also claimed that the Scorpions’s engagement of multinational forensics firm Kroll meant information could leak to foreign agencies.
The Scorpions responded by denying Powell had leaked documents; by saying contact with foreign agencies was government approved; and countering that even the police, contracted multinational auditing firms.
This version of Masetlha’s submission is understood to have particularly angered Kasrils, who had handed a “confidential” submission of his own to the commission. Masetlha this week confirmed it contradicted his own. He said: “I am aware of the minister’s view that the [Scorpions] should not be relocated. It’s the view that he holds. I respect it and I have nothing against it.”
While he chose not to respond to Kasrils’ rebuke, he said that he had shown his submission to the minister in July already.
In rebuking Masetlha, Kasrils seems to have taken succour from the Cabinet’s regular Wednesday statement. It included: “Cabinet … wishes to distance government from statements … which seek to question the integrity of officials employed in the DSO and to cast aspersions on cooperation that our institutions have with their international counterparts.”
From this it appears that the disagreement between the minister and his DG had not only been discussed at Cabinet level, but also that the Cabinet agreed the Scorpions’ contact with foreign agencies was sanctioned.
Kasrils’ statement to the M&G, through spokesperson Lorna Daniels, said that although he and different intelligence bodies had responded to the commission separately, he had “expressly warned against attacks on the integrity of individuals or foreign intelligence services.
“The minister has constantly stressed in his speeches that we no longer live in an era of Cold War hostilities, and in terms of countering international terrorism and organized crime he has emphasised the need for partnership and cooperation. As such, the minister would never launch attacks on the integrity of our own government structures nor intelligence agencies. He is not in the business of doing so.”
Masethla defended his stance at the commission, saying: “The concerns raised are institutional problems experienced over many years and I cannot act dishonestly.” His integrity demanded that he protect the NIA, he said.
A source close to the ANC leadership said this week that the difference between Kasrils and Masetlha related to the turmoil in the realignment of forces within the ANC. “What plays itself out is the reflection of internal dynamics. The DG… is uncomfortable with the Scorpions. The minister on the other is loyal to [President Thabo] Mbeki. He is compelled to take a particular view.”