Johannesburg - The primary report into the Guptagate has warned that the country’s lax intelligence agencies are a threat to state security.
It said the fact that a civilian plane managed to land illegally at a national key point without their knowledge was proof that the country was not safe enough under their watch.
This included the State Security Agency and the State Security Services, which fall under the State Security Department, as well as the Department of Defence’s military intelligence unit.
According to senior government officials who read the 22-page report, it also blasted the government’s systems as “weak”.
The cabinet endorsed the preliminary report on Thursday, saying “those who are found to infringe and compromise regulations must face the full might of the law”.
The affected ministers are expected to brief the ANC national executive committee meeting at the weekend before announcing the findings of the report and the way forward.
The Star reported on Thursday that the report, described as a “political hot potato”, had already put the spotlight on suspended chief of state protocol at the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco), Vusi Bruce Koloane, who faces possible criminal charges.
It is believed that the investigators are probing the possibility that he could have personally benefited in exchange for helping the Guptas bypass Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s decision to turn down their request.
A well-placed source said: “One of the issues highlighted by the report is that the systems within government are not working. The intelligence community is lax, and this laxity is a serious threat to national security.”
He said the report revealed that in addition to the Gupta’s 270 wedding guests, about 50 other people had landed at Waterkloof in their capacity as “cooks”.
“Those people could have been terrorists masquerading as cooks.
“Why was a threat analysis not done about this wedding that had the potential to embarrass the country? They were not even aware that the Gupta plane was about to land at Waterkloof,” the source added.
A Dirco official on Thursday accused officials from the Defence Department of deliberately putting the spotlight on Koloane in an attempt to divert attention from Mapisa-Nqakula’s failure to prevent the scandal.
The Star