Manala Manzini, the newly appointed Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), will have his work cut out turning the tide at the demoralised intelligence service.
President Thabo Mbeki appointed Manzini to take over the hot seat left by former head of the NIA Billy Masetlha, implicated in the hoax e-mail saga that has divided the African National Congress.
Born in Meadowlands, Soweto, in 1955, Manzini became a prominent member of the ANC in exile. He left South Africa in the early 1980s while a student at the University of Zululand to join the ANC underground in Tanzania.
After working in the ANC head office in Lusaka for many years, he was assigned as a representative of the movement in Tanzania between 1989 and 1991.
Manzini was then identified as a future servant of the ANC in government. Between 1992 and 1994, he was sent to service colleges in London, Malaysia and Namibia to be trained as a civil servant.
According to the Department of Intelligence, Manzini was a member of the negotiating team on the new public dispensation as part of the ANC contingent under current Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya.
He was responsible for coordinating security-related issues under former president Nelson Mandela, and in 1995 was appointed general manager responsible for corporate services within the NIA.
Unlike Masetlha, Manzini appears to be a low-profile individual. One of his first challenges will be to restore the integrity of the intelligence services, compromised by the succession battle in the ANC.
Manzini was not available for comment on his appointment, but he recently told the Sunday Times after his appointment as acting NIA director general that he was used to challenges of this nature.
”Even before one begins to implement any vision, one has to assist the organisation [the NIA] to raise its head.
”I’m not saying it’s drowning, but I think it is critical that we make sure that the NIA can afford to raise its head so that we can see where we need to go,” he said.
The Democratic Alliance said it had come to know Manzini as a sound administrator with wide expertise in the intelligence community and a good working knowledge. ”He is up to the challenge of this task,” the DA said.