Former SSA DG Arthur Fraser’s ‘moles got it wrong’

Inspector General of Intelligence (IGI) Setlhomamaru Dintwe says the former director-general of the State Security Agency (SSA), Arthur Fraser, launched a counter-investigation against him after allegations emerged he had received classified information.

Testifying before the Zondo commission on Wednesday evening, Dintwe said his office had received a complaint against Fraser.

The complaint was about the Principal Agent Network (PAN), he added.

But it was believed that as part of that complaint, Dintwe’s office also received classified documentation.

He said Fraser had requested him to produce the classified information, which he believed Dintwe received.

But when he refused, Fraser “then wrote a letter that he is instituting… he launched a counter-investigation against me”, said Dintwe.

“In the first letter, received on 8 November 2017, he said that the inspector general had met representatives of political parties in Parliament and had on that occasion received classified information which relates to the State Security Agency and its activity,” Dintwe said.

Asked by evidence leader Paul Pretorius if the complaint included classified information, he said: “There wasn’t actually. His moles got it wrong.”

Dintwe added that Fraser wrote a follow-up letter in which he reiterated “that I was in receipt of unlawfully obtained information from representatives of political parties in Parliament”.

He again wrote another letter informing him the SSA would be re-vetting him because he had not reported or disclosed to Fraser “the fact that I was in receipt of unlawful obtained classified information”.

Dintwe said Fraser personally delivered the letter when they were in Cape Town.

“He put it (the letter) on the table … and he says, ‘Sir, I have decided to re-vet you’. And he observed me, he was looking at me and I put the letter aside and said I will see that when I get to Pretoria. I did not show him any signs of frustration or fear. He actually left my office an angry man on that day,” he told the commission.

Dintwe told commission chairperson Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that he had received another letter from Fraser in March 2018, telling him his security clearance had been withdrawn.

Among the reasons given to Dintwe was “failure to exercise my duty to report and action breaches of disclosure of classified information in/or from the Office of the Inspector General of Intelligence”.

The following month, Fraser barred him from his office, he said.

Asked what this meant for his office, Dintwe added: “It was brought to its knees.”

He said there was also an email informing his exco not to communicate or provide him with anything.

Dintwe then launched an application in court, adding the minister intervened and reinstated his security clearance.

On Tuesday, Dintwe told the commission his office was undermined by the conduct of the SSA and Fraser, News24 reported.

When asked what led him to this conclusion, he said: “It will be a plethora of issues that came to the fore. I actually ended up in court trying to litigate and get an interdict against Mr Arthur Fraser. It is a plethora of them.”