The DA will be writing to the Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI), Dr Setlhomamaru Dintwe, to request a meeting and an update on the investigation into State Security Agency Director-General, Arthur Fraser.
The DA lodged a formal complaint with the IGI’s Office on 18 May 2017, in terms of section 7(cA) of the Intelligence Services Oversight Act (40 of 1994), requesting an investigation into Fraser’s involvement with the Principle Agent Network (PAN) programme which he, as the then-Deputy Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, initiated and oversaw from 2007 to 2009.
It has now been nearly six months since we approached the IGI and the public interest in the matter has never been greater, prompted largely by Jacques Pauw’s recently released book, The President’s Keepers.
The need for the IGI to expedite his investigation is all the more acute considering Fraser’s links to President Jacob Zuma and mounting evidence of State Capture in government and state entities.
Additionally, Pauw’s book mentions long-serving member of the IGI Office, Jay Govender, by name and implicates her in wrongdoing. Dr Dintwe must act with haste to ensure the integrity of his office.
The DA vehemently objected to Zuma’s outrageous appointment of Arthur Fraser in September 2016, pointing both to his involvement the PAN programme and the irregular government tenders, amounting to millions of rands, secured by Resurgent Risk Management, a company co-founded by Fraser after he was forced out of the intelligence services, disgraced and under investigation.
We will also be calling on the IGI to make his report on Fraser public, rather than referring it to the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence which is a closed forum.
The allegations against Fraser are profoundly serious and needs to be prioritised by IGI. It can no longer be left to opposition parties, journalists and civil society to expose the rot in our intelligence community.