Johannesburg - State Security Minister David Mahlobo on Wednesday condemned and launched a full inquiry into the leaking of scores of secret documents of the State Security Agency (SSA) to the Al Jazeera network.
He said it was illegal and had had “the dangerous effect of undermining operational effectiveness of the work to secure this country and borders” and undermining diplomatic relations with its international partners.
Mahlobo also said the government would look into social media reports alleging espionage activities linked to some politicians and the head of a Chapter 9 institution. He did not elaborate.
DA MP and defence spokesman David Maynier demanded an investigation into the leaking of the cables by Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence rather than the internal departmental investigation which Mahlobo seemed to be proposing.
This was imperative to determine if the spy cable exposé had revealed any wrongdoing by the SSA.
“The minister’s suggestion that the ‘spy cable exposé’ may reveal information concerning possible spying on politicians and ‘a head of a Chapter 9 institution’ is especially worrying,” Maynier said.
Meanwhile, a new batch of SSA cables published by Al Jazeera on Wednesday exposed tension between the South African intelligence services and the Israeli secret service Mossad.
The SSA assessments accuse Israel of conducting “cynical” policies in Africa that include “fuelling insurrection”, “appropriating diamonds” and even sabotaging Egypt’s water supply.
One of the reports includes a secret analysis from South African intelligence dismissing a tour of African countries by the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in 2009, as “an exercise in cynicism”.
It said his nine-day trip to Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya had laid the groundwork for arms deals and the appropriation of African resources, while hiding behind “a philanthropic façade”.
Al Jazeera reported that South Africa’s “Geopolitical Country and Intelligence Assessment” of October 2009 had accused Israel of pursuing “destructive policies” in Africa that include:
On compromising Egypt’s water security, it said Israeli scientists “created a type of plant that flourishes on the surface or the banks of the Nile and that absorbs such large quantities of water as to significantly reduce the volume of water that reaches Egypt”. The report offers no additional evidence for this claim.
On fuelling insurrection in Sudan, the report said Israel was “working assiduously to encircle and isolate Sudan from the outside”, “and to fuel insurrection inside Sudan”.
Mossad agents have also “set up a communications system which serves to both eavesdrop on and secure the security of presidential telecommunications”.
Israel had long been at loggerheads with Khartoum, and supported the secessionist movement that eventually broke away and created South Sudan, with which it has diplomatic ties.
Foreign Bureau