Johannesburg - DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen on Tuesday announced he was set to lay corruption charges against State Security Agency (SSA) Director-General Arthur Fraser and members of his family.
Fraser and his family came under the spotlight after the release of investigative journalist Jacques Pauw's book The President's Keepers – Those keeping Zuma in power and out of prison.
The book alleged that Fraser was complicit in the looting of millions of rands from a slush fund and claimed that his brother Barry was the director of a company and NGO that benefitted from an alleged intelligence operation dubbed Principal Agent Network (PAN) which Fraser initiated and oversaw.
An internal investigation into the PAN programme reportedly found wide-scale financial mismanagement, fruitless expenditure, nepotism and corruption amounting to tens of millions of rands.
READ MORE: Retract lies in #PresidentsKeepers, Fraser family tells Pauw
Following this, the Fraser family accused Pauw of "committing the classic journalistic deception of not allowing facts to get in the way of a good story" and demanded that the author retract the lies allegedly contained in his book
Steenhuisen confirmed he would lay corruption charges against Fraser and his family at the Cape Town police station in terms of the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act.
"This supplements the formal complaint I lodged with the Inspector-General of Intelligence on 18 May 2017."
Steenhuisen added that "Pauw’s book and related media reports paint the picture of a covert programme which was used as a personal enrichment scheme for the Frasers and other intelligence operatives".
"The ‘secret’ nature of their activities have allowed those who fleeced the SSA to escape accountability for far too long."
He added that the details that have since emerged not only reinforce the party's objections to his appointment, but also necessitate a proper investigation into his criminal conduct as well as that of his family.
Steenhuisen's announcement comes days after the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), or Hawks, confirmed they were investigating the possible leaking of classified information contained in Pauw's book.
READ MORE: #ThePresidentsKeepers: Hawks probe leaking of classified info to Pauw
This came after SSA spokesperson Brian Dube told Independent Media that the agency had opened a case against Pauw related to his contravening of the Intelligence Services Act.