A former director-general at the State Security Agency (SSA) has told the Zondo Commission that he believes former president Jacob Zuma had sought to consolidate the powers of the country's intelligence services to serve his own political agenda.
Ambassador Mzuvukile Maqetuka took the stand at the inquiry on Friday.
He had served as DG at the SSA from 2009 until he left in 2012. He started his evidence by giving context as to why he felt former president Jacob Zuma and former state security minister Siyabonga Cwele had possibly gone against the Constitution when they formed the State Security Agency in 2009.
The SSA was formed in 2009 and saw the amalgamation of the country's intelligence services, which included the National Intelligence Agency, South African Secret Service, South African National Academy and the National Communications Centre.
When it formed, it was done through a proclamation and not through a Parliamentary led legislative process. Maqetuka said this decision was ill-conceived and he had expressed his reservations against following this process.
Maqetuka said another issue was it fell outside the mandate of a white paper which was drawn up in 1994 that gave a broad outline on how the country's intelligence service should operate.
Maqetuka said there was a need to avoid forming a centralised intelligence agency which mirrored the one that existed during apartheid. Even with these concerns, Maqetuka said Cwele was adamant that the process of forming the organisation was correct.
The former DG said in hindsight, looking back he could see that there may have been a sinister agenda in the amalgamation and the formation of SSA.
He back his reasoning by referencing the political faction of former president Jacob Zuma which ensured his victory at the ANC elective conference in 2007.
Maqetuka said it was clear that the formation of the SSA was part of Zuma's goal to control the country's intelligence operations for his political motives. He said the "Zuma faction" found a need to support the formation of the SSA.
"It was my view that the reason for restructuring intelligence services was that, post-Polokwane ANC elective conference the faction in support of the former president, the Zuma faction, wanted to assert their control and applied their rationale for the creation of the SSA.
"However, in retrospect, having regard to the events that followed after our departure from the intelligence service and in particular the parallel intelligence operations conducted by Arthur Fraser (former SSA DG). It may be that more sinister objectives were at play in the restructuring.
"It may be that while the former president believed that we would all serve his agenda of perhaps capturing the intelligence services when it was apparent that we were not as compliant as expected we were replaced so that he could pursue his agenda unhindered," Maqetuka said.
Maqetuka left the SSA in 2012. He said his departure and that of former SSA executives, Mo Rieaz Shaik and Gibson Njenje, could be seen as constructive dismissal following their decision to investigate the Gupta family. Cwele did not want the investigation to go ahead.
"Our leaving the organisation is tantamount to constructive dismissal if you follow the events," Maqetuka said.