In his earliest days as intelligence minister, Ronnie Kasrils apparently enraged a number of the country's top spooks when he suggested, it is claimed, that police crime intelligence did a much better job at spying than they did.
This was back in 2004, when crime intelligence had not experienced the tainted touch of Richard Mdluli and the many other police generals who later conspired to turn the institution into a tool for powerful politicians.
Two years earlier, this intelligence arm of the SAPS had been credited with breaking the back of a right-wing terror network, leading to the arrest of 26 Boeremag members on charges of attempting to overthrow the democratic state and for a number of 2002 bombing incidents in Soweto.
Conspicuous by its absence in the investigation of what was arguably the biggest domestic security threat to the country at the time was the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the body set up precisely to combat such threats. Instead of digging up intelligence on the Boeremag conspiracy, our spooks became deeply enmeshed in what was increasingly emerging as the ANC leadership succession battle.
It was to emerge later that senior executives at the agency authorised spying operations on the ANC leader of a rival group on a flimsy claim that he had fed "top secret" information to his alleged German handlers. Evidence against the leader? He had been at a high-class restaurant frequented by diplomatic types in Pretoria one afternoon where he was seen exchanging greetings with a man our spooks believed to be working for the German secret service.
Who can forget how a group of NIA spooks were caught red-handed by a private security company while on a surveillance mission outside the home of ANC leader turned businessman Saki Macozoma in 2005?
I am retelling these stories as a reminder that the problem of our intelligence services meddling in party politics, and acting to benefit one political player against the other, goes back much further than the period when Jacob Zuma was president.
Although shocking, revelations by witnesses who testified before the Zondo commission this week about how lawlessness reigned supreme at the State Security Agency (SSA) ought not to have come as a surprise to anyone.
What is surprising (or maybe not) is that some two years after Sydney Mufamadi's high-level review panel on the SSA handed over its report to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government, no prosecutions have taken place. This is despite clear evidence of crimes having been committed.
Deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo is yet to make up his mind about the evidence presented before him by Mufamadi, acting director-general of intelligence Loyiso Jafta and a high-ranking spy chief identified only as Ms K. He is certainly going to hear from the other side, as some of those accused of wrongdoing have already indicated their intention to present the commission with their side of the story.
But what is clear is that the domestic intelligence service is broken, compromised and a potential threat to democracy. Tinkering with it by removing a discredited minister or director-general over the years has not fixed the problem. In fact, in some instances it made matters worse as individuals were ousted for their loyalty to a defeated faction only for them to be replaced by personalities whose allegiance would be to the new dominant grouping and not the country's constitution.
A major shake-up is therefore needed as a matter of urgency to root out the criminal networks within the intelligence community and to turn the agencies into the non-partisan and professional bodies they are envisaged to be by the constitution.
The first step, of course, is for the police to do their work by arresting those who are said to have looted the SSA's funds and broken security legislation. On the political front the president, in his capacity as head of state, should at the very least force into a leave of absence any member of the executive implicated in the abuse of intelligence service resources for political and personal gain.
As head of the ruling party he should also demand that ANC MPs accused of illegal acts during their time as political heads of the intelligence department be forced to vacate office until they have at least cleared their names. Without such action being taken, it will only be a matter of time before our spooks find themselves deep in the murky business of trying to decide for us, through manipulation, who the next president should be.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.