EFF demands law-enforcement agencies probe R12-m State Security Agency slush fund

The EFF wants a number of law-enforcement agencies to investigate shocking allegations that the State Security Agency (SSA) doled out R12-million to destabilise the party.

The party called on the SA Revenue Service (SARS), Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke, Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence and the office of the inspector-general on intelligence to probe the matter.

This comes after the EFF was granted access to documents used in the criminal trial of Patrick Mshothola, formerly project manager in the SSA’s chief directorate for special operations, and Thulani Dlomo, the agency’s former deputy director for counter-intelligence.

The two men were charged with theft, fraud, forgery and uttering involving about R12-million linked to Korolo Investment Holdings in 2014 following their arrest on November 30 last year.
Their prosecution is the first of SSA personnel arising from the findings of the High Level Review Panel on the SSA and the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture.

On Thursday, Judge Mashudu Munzhelele, who is presiding over Mshothola and Dlomo’s trial, granted the EFF access to the those parts of the transcript of the proceedings in the trial that relate to the party, from its commencement to its conclusion, which will be redacted as the court directs.

In addition, the EFF will be provided with a copy of the indictment, redacted as the court directs and the registrar and the contracted transcribers were directed to transcribe the documents.

The alleged spying on the EFF occurred during the tenure of then State Security Minister David Mahlobo, who is now deputy water and sanitation minister.

EFF deputy president Godrich Gardee said the party was not shocked by the revelations.

“Quite a number of monies (sic) were dished out to staff, to Lady X and to so-called operatives, agents and moles inside the EFF and we look forward to getting to the bottom of the issue and we hope SARS will also do its homework and go and look for those people who received the money and pay some tax on the monies that they have received,” he said.

Gardee said among the options available to the EFF is to raise the matter for a national debate as people cannot have taxpayers’ money being used by the secret service whose duty is to protect the people of South Africa and the State. It is worrying to find it is being used to spy on legitimately elected political parties in Parliament.

“We are not sure if the ANC and the secret service have actually stopped this nefarious conduct and it does look like they have not stopped.

“We don’t know if it is only done to the EFF and more likely it is done to every other person including among themselves, the ANC, as we have known that the secret service, then called the National Intelligence Agency, has been fingered in the past long before the EFF was established for getting into unconstitutional conduct outside its mandate to protect to protect the State,” he told 24-hour news channel Newzroom Afrika.

According to Gardee, looking back to the period between 2015 and 2016, the EFF saw quite a number of people leaving the party.

They left unprovoked and insulting the party. Some of them still do today.

“Most probably, they are still on the payroll of the secret service (SSA),” he said.

Gardee would not say whether or not the EFF had received the documents, only saying they were very sensitive and that only party leader Julius Malema could deal with the matter.

“Something similar happened when late former president Nelson Mandela took over; he was given a list of all the spies within the ANC who were working with the apartheid government. He had to deal with it as the president and leader of the country and the ANC.

“To date we still don’t know what is in that list and where the list is. And similarly, we expect the president (Malema) to deal with it and provide leadership on the matter,” he added.

Gardee undertook that there would be no witchhunt in the EFF to find the person who received money but the organisation would scrutinise the documents and consult among themselves as the leadership to chart the way forward.

Malema has previously revealed that there was a budget of R10-m from the SSA during Mahlobo’s tenure to kill the EFF.