The Democratic Alliance (DA) will ask the Inspector General of Intelligence to investigate whether President Jacob Zuma approved the use of spooks to monitor the activities of his political opponents.
“I will be writing to the Inspector General of Intelligence, Faith Radebe, to request that she investigate the possible involvement of the president in the abuse of the state security apparatus,” DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said in a statement on Sunday.
This followed a request he had made to Radebe last week, asking her to investigate reported abuse of the intelligence services to fight factional battles within the African National Congress.
Since then, reports have indicated that the Minister of State Security Siyabonga Cwele wanted State Security Agency head Gibson Njenje to place ANC politicians opposed to Zuma under surveillance.
“Minister Cwele reportedly issued his request to Mr Njenje following a ‘threat analysis’ in the ministry’s Political Stability Assessment Report.”
Cwele’s decision to use the intelligence services for party-political purposes raised a number of questions.
“Did President Zuma himself order Minister Cwele to use the state intelligence apparatus to monitor his political opponents? If not, on whose orders was Minister Cwele acting?” Trollip asked.
It was highly unlikely that Cwele would have made this decision without the president, or other senior ANC leaders, knowing about it.
“The role of the president must … be thoroughly interrogated. The Inspector General must ensure that the integrity of the state intelligence apparatus is protected and not merely used as a weapon in the arsenal of a certain political faction,” he said.
Trollip wanted the investigation to centre on what he called the improper provision of security services, primarily the protection reportedly given to Sheryl Cwele during her trafficking trial, the use of intelligence services with the purpose of fighting internal battles within the ANC and the reported “feeding of state security information to the ANC Youth League”.
He said the “crisis” should be seen against the backdrop of government’s “failure to act on the recommendations of the 2008 Matthew’s Report which emphasised the importance of reforming South Africa’s intelligence services”.
“Such recommendations are even more pertinent given current fears about the impact of the Protection of Information Bill on the hegemony of the intelligence services”, he said. — Sapa