Durban - South Africa continued to descend into a state security nightmare when social media imploded and revealed the identity of the controversial “Ms X” who was testifying for the second day at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.
This is despite the commission’s strict instructions to keep witnesses anonymous.
After her testimony on Wednesday, Ms K’s identity went viral in a social media post that has been widely circulated via WhatsApp.
The Daily News called her yesterday for her view on her identity being revealed.
She answered the phone, identifying herself as (her first name) and when the reporter identified himself, she said: “Hold on, here is my lawyer”.
The lawyer was hostile; demanding the reporters' particulars, asking how we knew that the number called was for “Ms K”.
When the reporter tried to explain how we knew, given that “Ms Ks' giving her first name when answering her phone was confirmation enough, the lawyer, who did not want to identify himself, said he would not entertain any further engagement on the matter and hung up.
Starting from Wednesday, Ms K reportedly testified that Thulani Dlomo, formerly the SSA’s deputy director-general responsible for counter intelligence and South Africa's former ambassador to Japan, ran a private protection unit dedicated to Zuma.
She said the unit usurped the functions of the SA Police Service’s presidential protection unit, which is responsible for the safety of presidents, their deputies and their families.
Contacted for comment, the commission’s spokesperson Reverend Mbuyiselo Stemela said a response to the media query will not have the same day’s turnaround time.
He said the query will be processed and that a response can be available by Friday.
Social media experts have warned against undermining the judicial process and that re-sharing fake news received on social media platforms is an equally punishable offence as being the original publisher author of a post.
Social Media Expert, Sarah Hoffmann commented: “We have to urge anyone who receives this WhatsApp with the alleged identity of the informant and witness “Ms K” not to forward it on. We have got to take the lead in this instance from the example at the end of last year of “Mr X” whose identity was revealed by Dudu Myeni. She was heavily condemned by CJ Zondo and many other legal experts involved because essentially what she was doing was undermining a judicial order. I do not see the publication of this WhatsApp as being any different to the Myeni case. The other danger in forwarding information like this is that it might discourage future potential witnesses from coming forward at the Zondo Commission as there might be a risk to their safety,” she said.
University of Zululand Professor Sipho Seepe, said the sovereignty of any country and its territorial integrity is always under threat and that threat can be both domestic and foreign.
He explained that the airing of state security matters in public is never a prudent thing to do as it may compromise the security of the state and, with it, the lives of South Africans.
“As a rule, there is an understanding with the national affairs of any country that its sovereignty is under threat. Most countries have mechanisms to deal with those threats. This is the role of defence and intelligence services as well as police.
Even in the police there is a unit that deals with intelligence to make sure that our sovereign integrity is protected and not threatened. The role of intelligence services is to make sure that you guide against those forces which might be real. But because the threat always comes in dark corners you need to have capabilities to move in those dark spaces. That is why you never find intelligence accounting in public,” he said.
He added that a country that airs its intelligence in public is a laughing stock of the global community and that is where as South Africans we should know that we do not have a country.
“You have people who have dual citizenships handling intelligence of SA. That is why in the US, you cannot have dual citizenship. It’s either you are American or you are not. What you see at the Zondo commission is a real threat to our territorial integrity. There is no leadership and they are putting their interests ahead at the expense of the country. They don’t give a damn. The future does not matter; they are already in the future. We will pay dearly for the secrets that are being exposed,” he explained.
Johan Burger, a reasercher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said witnesses were to be protected because the commission was not only exposing SSA but a number of other state entities where wrongdoing has been identified.
He held a different view, arguing that SSA was formed and funded by public funds
“They can’t hide behind that argument when they want to abuse public funds. What I have heard so far in the testimony is theft, abuse of power and state funds, which are public funds,” he said.
The EFF said it would not participate in the outing, speculating and undermining of a witness as they provided information to the commission.
“We would urge the public and the media to refrain from attacking the character of witnesses and participating in an activity that may endanger witnesses who have chosen to remain secret in fear of their lives and the lives of those they love,” said Vuyani Pambo, the party’s national spokesperson.
Daily News