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Thulani Dlomo (Photo: Min-on.org) | Thanks Cwele. (Photo: Flickr / GCIS) | Former President Jacob Zuma. (Photo: Waldo Swiegers / Bloomberg via Getty Images) | Bongani Bongo. (Photo: Flickr / GCIS / Elmond Jiyane)
Evidence provided by a State Security Agency official, from an investigation into the agency’s industrial-scale looting, outlined how former President Jacob Zuma and his allies set out to create a shadow state even before 2009, when he took office.
Since at least 2008, the “Zuma spy”, Thulani Dlomo, had floated the idea of an exclusive Presidential Security Support Service dedicated exclusively to intelligence gathering “to protect President Jacob Zuma when he comes to power”, the Commission Zondo’s Inquiry into the state’s capture heard Wednesday.
Shortly after being sworn in, Zuma signed a proclamation that bypassed Parliament and collapsed five of South Africa’s agencies into the single State Security Agency (SSA).
Thus the door was opened to the creation of an illegal, parallel and secret security state, financed with public money, much of which remains unaware, and which served Zuma’s personal and political interests for more than a decade.
The abuse occurred non-stop during the tenure of three state security ministers, Siyabonga Cwele, David Mahlobo and Bongani Bongo, and was carried out by Maruti Nosi, Arthur Fraser and Thulani Dlomo.
The commission heard testimony from Ms K (identity protected) that while still working in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Development, Dlomo had set out to select and train some 25 recruits, who were not prosecuted through SSA and operated out of its formal structures.
These recruits were sent to train in a “foreign” country and, upon their return, they were handed firearms and deployed to all provinces.
In 2012, Dlomo was appointed as the powerful head of the Special Operations Unit and, based on evidence, reported directly and exclusively to the president.
Members recruited by Dlomo who had been interviewed by investigators had also confirmed that the unit reported to Dlomo, who reported to the “executive”.
Although the recruits had not signed contracts with the SSA, the agency awarded them firearms.
Some of the firearms were later recovered, but many were not. The SSA also issued ammunition to “co-workers,” as they were called.
However, bullets later recovered by Project Veza investigators revealed that the returned firepower had not been an SSA problem and came from elsewhere.
The Veza Project was tasked with investigating reports of irregularities and criminality at the SSA between 2012 and 2018.
Ms. K, who has received threats, testified virtually from an undisclosed location and told the commission that Dlomo’s unit was effectively a private force operating outside of SSA structures.
This was justified by those who lobbied for it, he said, after claims that Zuma had been “vulnerable to all kinds of threats,” including “the media.” However, no evidence was found to support this claim.
The centralization of Zuma’s intelligence services not only expanded the mandate of the SSA, but also usurped the functions of the SAPS with respect to the protection of VIPs, and the South African Military Health Service with respect to the health of the President, heard the commission.
Ms K testified about several SSA-funded projects, including the Protect Luthuli House campaign, which had involved housing and feeding MKVA veterans who arrived by bus to demonstrate a show of force in support of Zuma.
The Veza Project found “exponential overspending” on Dlomo’s watch, which later emerged included money wasted on hiring private toxicologists at an initial cost of 500,000 rand per month, jumping to 1.5 million rand. rand per month.
Two toxicologists and two assistants were trained in a “foreign country” and the private unit was located in a house in Waterkloof, Pretoria, said Ms K. The unit was established after allegations that Zuma had been poisoned in 2014.
Earlier this week, the commission heard that then-Minister of State Security David Mahlobo had spearheaded the Tin Roof Project and had obtained 5.1 million rand from the SSA to secure a “safe house” for one of Zuma’s wives, MaNtuli, who had been accused of trying to kill her husband.
In 2017, Mokwena, who was friends with First Lady Thobeka Zuma (now separated from Jacob Zuma and seeking a divorce), was acquitted of fraud, corruption and money laundering charges in connection with SARS research and training tenders. .
The commission heard that the president’s wife had been excommunicated from the presidential house in Nkandla and had been “held against her will” in the “safe house”. Subsequently, the National Prosecutor’s Office found no evidence that MaNtuli poisoned Zuma and refused to prosecute him.
The toxicology program had been facilitated by SSA agent Mandisa Mokwena, the commission heard, who had allowed a company she had registered to be used for the “large amounts of cash” that needed to be injected into the project.
Mokwena then headed the SARS risk management division and was appointed in 2019 to head Prasa’s security division where he currently heads a R5 billion investment program.
In 2017, Mokwena, who was friends with First Lady Thobeka Zuma (now separated from Jacob Zuma and seeking a divorce), was acquitted of fraud, corruption and money laundering charges in connection with SARS research and training tenders. .
Mokwena’s defense was that the money put into her bank account was actually a payment from the SSA and not a bribe. And this while working in a position of high power and trust in SARS while the institution was under attack and while reports of a “rogue unit” began to appear in the media.
In the end, the only evidence the highly paid toxicologists found that could pose a threat to Zuma was some expired soft drinks in a pantry in Nkandla, they told the commission.
The investigation by Project Veza investigators was prompted, Zondo heard, by the discovery of documents found in a safe at SSA headquarters in Musanda in Pretoria.
Ms K testified about several SSA-funded projects, including the Protect Luthuli House campaign, which had involved housing and feeding MKVA veterans who arrived by bus to demonstrate a show of force in support of Zuma.
Hours earlier, Fraser defender Rapulane Kgoroeadira objected to the testimony of the Acting Director General of the SSA, Loyiso Jafta, on January 26, which 9 billion rand In SSA, fixed assets could not be located or accounted for.
Kgoroeadira told the commission that it was the first time Fraser had learned that such a large amount had not been accounted for during his watch and that Jafta should have raised this with Fraser.
“Since then, we have established that there are no assets worth R9 billion unaccounted for,” Kgoroeadira said.
Test leader Paul Pretorius said Fraser would be free to raise all objections when questioned.
The commission will continue to hear Ms. K’s testimony on Thursday, January 28. DM
