The ANC is said to be lobbying opposition parties to support its latest candidate for inspector-general of intelligence (IGI) after their first choice, Frank Chikane, failed to impress.
Parliament has not recommended a candidate for the spooks' ombudsman since interviews concluded in early February.
The Sunday Times can reveal that MPs who serve on the joint standing committee on intelligence (JSCI) cannot agree on who should replace Setlhomamaru Dintwe as IGI.
Dintwe’s five-year term ended on March 15.
The governing party’s fallback candidate, Faith Makhobotloane, has also been rejected by opposition parties involved in the process, according to insiders in parliament.
Instead, opposition MPs are proposing public works and infrastructure senior official Imtiaz Fazel, who until last month was acting director-general of that department.
Fazel is said to have come out tops in the interviews.
MPs with knowledge of the process say the governing party is now looking at bilateral talks with opposition parties to get their support and end the stalemate.
“The ANC wanted Frank Chikane but he didn’t do well. It became difficult for them to justify pushing for him,” said one source. “Their fallback candidate is a woman who trained abroad and is also connected to the ANC. She too was not the best performer.
“They are scrambling. They can’t bring Frank Chikane’s name to the house as he will be defeated and this woman will also be defeated,” said the source.
The JSCI interviewed 10 candidates for the statutory position — it is provided for in the constitution and in terms of the Intelligence Services Oversight Act — on February 8 and 9, more than a month before Dintwe’s term expired.
The IGI is responsible for monitoring intelligence services and investigating complaints against them.
It is not the first time opposition parties have frustrated the ANC’s plans on filling an IGI vacancy.
The IGI office operated without a chief between March 2015, when Faith Radebe retired, and Dintwe’s appointment in March 2017.
This left the institution with no-one to legally sign off on investigations, fill vacant positions or release documents to the public, and led to legal challenges.
At the time the ANC was pushing for parliament to appoint its then MP Cecil Burgess, but the party was thwarted by the opposition three times in 20 months.
Because the IGI is a constitutional appointment, the successful appointee requires the support of two-thirds of the National Assembly.
The law does not provide for the appointment of an acting IGI.
Previously, it emerged that in the two-year absence of an IGI between 2015 and 2017, intelligence services refused to co-operate with the office because it did not have an executive authority.
Three senior officials who kept the office running in the absence of an IGI were berated by MPs for “assuming” powers they did not have.
JSCI co-chair Jerome Maake did not respond to repeated attempts to get his comment.
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