South African government officials at the highest level would not be drawn on Monday evening on reports that South African spy Aubrey Welken would be brought home from Zimbabwe on Tuesday.
The government’s top spokesperson, Joel Netshitenzhe, referred enquiries — about reports that Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils was en route to Harare on Monday evening to fetch Welken — to the office of the minister.
Kasrils’s spokesperson Lorna Daniels could not be reached for comment, and Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa referred queries to Netshitenzhe.
Welken was arrested by Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives at Victoria Falls on December 10 2004 and jailed in Harare.
The Associated Press news agency reported in May that Welken was said to have controlled a spy ring of senior Zimbabwean government and ruling-party figures.
Welken allegedly paid his Zimbabwean contacts to report on tensions within President Robert Mugabe’s government, in power since independence in 1980 but now dogged by a prolonged economic and political crisis.
He was reportedly attempting to recruit the head of the CIO’s counter-intelligence unit.
According to The Associated Press, Welken was lured from Pretoria to a meeting with Zimbabwean counterparts in Livingstone, Zambia, and then persuaded to cross the Zambezi River where he was arrested and subjected to prolonged interrogation. — Sapa