The so-called ”Special Browse” report alleging that Jacob Zuma had enlisted the help of African heads of state in his succession battle bore ”malicious intent”, Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane said on Wednesday.
He said the report was aimed at causing confusion, mistrust and division in the government and some political organisations.
Speaking in Pretoria at a press conference by security cluster director generals about the report, Chikane said it was a classic ”Stratcom type initiative” and that it had ”no status in government”.
”This type of operation is different. It’s meant to produce a particular effect, so they weave the information in a way that will create confusion, risk people’s lives, cause division amongst people within the government [and] the outside government,” Chikane said.
He said the government had already, during the first half of last year, received the report that alleged that Zuma was being bankrolled by Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi and Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos in his bid for the presidency.
The document also named several companies purportedly set up to channel money to Zuma.
It claimed South African Communist Party Leader Blade Nzimande was aiding Zuma by ”promoting a street-level revolution” in South Africa in support of Zuma’s political aspirations.
”The report in question is no different from other malicious documents and hoaxes that have been dealt with,” Chikane said.
It was aimed not only at creating confusion in South Africa but also tension between the country and other African states, Manala Manzini, director general of the National Intelligence Agency, said.
”[It was] clearly an intention aimed at undermining our foreign policy initiatives; an intention aimed at dealing a blow to the relations that South Africa is in with a number of African countries; an intention to create conflict within us as a government and certain African governments,” he said.
Barry Gilder, director general of the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee said the South African intelligence community had been inundated with misinformation similar to the report since 1995.
”Some of it [is] very poor quality, which was dismissed on the face of it, and some very cleverly done, which mix false information with real information,” he said.
He added that it had been found in the past that people responsible for misinformation were found to come from the intelligent and security structures of the apartheid government.
”Sometimes they are doing it for purely financial motivation — in other words they are trying to sell their services as information providers to the state … in some cases we detect a more sinister motivation,” Gilder said.
Chikane said the source of the report would be investigated and the outcome of the investigation was expected soon.
However, Gilder said a longer investigation was ongoing into the continuous appearance of the reports.
”To get to the bottom of who’s behind it and what the motivation is, and whether there are links between this and previous reports, is a much longer investigation,” he said. — Sapa