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From left to right: Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan (Photo: Bloomberg / Getty Images / Waldo Swiegers) / EFF leader JUlius Malema (Photo: Gallo Images / Papi Morake) / Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla / Netwerk24)
Busisiwe Mkhwebane and EFF suffered a legal setback when the higher court judge ruled that the 2014 Intelligence Inspector General’s classified report on the State Security Agency’s attack on SARS should be sent back to the vaults.
Former Intelligence Inspector General (IG) Faith Radebe’s 2014 report on alleged illegal activities of the State Security Agency (SSA) in the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has been covered up by the Gauteng High Court and it will be sent back to the vaults.
On Monday, November 2, 2020, Judge Nomonde Mngqibisa-Thusi granted the request of the Minister of State Security, Ayanda Dlodlo, to prohibit the publication and / or public access to the controversial and classified report.
Dlodlo requested to intercept the report, although it had already been made public by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Public Protector, in the interest of “national security”, to protect the identity of the country’s spies, as well as the training methods of La agency.
Mkhwebane had argued that the ban on publication and access to Radebe’s classified report would prevent his report on former SARS commissioner Pravin Gordhan and the alleged “rogue unit” of SARS from being made public.
She told the court that she would be “paralyzed in defending the findings she made in her report.” [on Gordhan and former deputy SARS commissioner Ivan Pillay].
the Public protector He also said that he could not comply with the provisions of the Law of the Public Protector and rule 53 of the Uniform Regime, which oblige it to file the documents on which its report is based, including the classified Radebe Report.
Mngqibisa-Thusi said that the Public protector and the EFF’s argument that the information was already in the public domain and that “any damage that has already occurred has no merit.”
“Just because the IG report is in the public domain doesn’t mean it loses its ranking. Until the report is declassified, its unauthorized possession is illegal in terms of section 4 of the Information Protection Act and section 26 of the Intelligence Services Act.
“The Public Protector and the EFF, therefore, cannot rely on the argument that the IG report is in the public domain as their unauthorized possession of the classified report is a continuing crime,” he said. Mngqibisa-Thusi.
Dlodlo had provided Mkhwebane, however, with a redacted version of the Radebe report that did not put her at a disadvantage, the judge said.
“The legitimacy of the review procedures would not be undermined if the IG report is not used. In addition, the public will have the opportunity to access its contents. [the redacted version] and if it is necessary to debate it, “he said Mngqibisa-Thusi.
Radebe’s 2014 report went up, like a vampire, in 2019 when the EFF attached it to another matter involving Gordhan in the equality court, making it public.
The fact that the IG report is part of a court file and that Van Loggerenberg has revealed some of the identities of the SSA agents does not justify endangering the safety and lives of the intelligence agents and their families.
The EFF also attached the Radebe report to its counter-request to Gordhan’s legal challenge to the Public Protector’s July 2019 report, entitled “Report on an Investigation into Allegations of Violations of the Code of Executive Ethics by Mr. Pravin Gordhan, MP as well as allegations of mismanagement, corruption and misconduct by the South African Revenue Service ”.
Both the EFF and the Public protector They had the classified report, mysteriously delivered to the Public protector Office Lobby – To deal a final and lethal blow to your nemesis, Pravin Gordhan.
Mkhwebane was so interested in getting her hands on it that in January 2019 she visited the offices of the current Inspector General for Intelligence, Target wars, in an attempt to obtain a “legitimate” copy.
Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s Great Fishing Expedition for Radebe Report
Being in possession of the classified document delivered to her offices would have made her guilty of a crime. Dintwe stood his ground and referred Mkhwebane to the Minister of State Security.
The Public Protector and the EFF took a hit in June 2020 when Judge Sulet Poterill, in North Gauteng Superior Court, passed a consent judgment nullifying and declaring the entirety invalid Radebe Report.
By making the report public, the EFF had opened it to legal challenges.
It was the former SARS executive Johann van Loggerenberg who, in November 2019, filed an application with the high court when Mkhwebane announced that he had obtained a version of the classified report.
Mkhwebane had also publicly stated that he had used the Radebe report to build the case for “rogue unity” in his report, recommending that Pravin Gordhan be disciplined.
Van Loggerenberg had provided evidence to Radebe in 2014 when the then Minister of State Security, David Mahlobo, ordered, after media reports, that the involvement of State Security agents in the attack on SARS be investigated.
When the Public Protector made it public that she was in possession of the report, Van Loggerenberg was able to access it for the first time. It was then that he determined that the evidence he had provided to Radebe at the time had been largely ignored and had “disappeared” in some cases.
On Monday, Mngqibisa-Thusi said that the Public Protector and the EFF could not seek to “rely on his wrongful conduct.”
“The fact that the IG report is part of a judicial file and that Mr. Van Loggerenberg has revealed some of the identities of the SSA agents does not justify endangering the safety and life of the intelligence agents and their families, “said the judge.
She ordered that each and every reference to IG’s report in the EFF founding affidavit be removed and the party pay the costs of the application.
Mngqibisa-Thusi said it was awarding the costs order against the EFF as the party’s conduct “in attaching the IG report prior to its declassification cannot be tolerated.” DM
