Spy allegations mount against state security minster

Minister of State Security Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba is alleged to have been a paid spy while she was a Limpopo MEC for over ten years, the Sunday Independent has reported.

According to the publication, Letsatsi-Duba earned millions during while living a ‘double life’, which was not declared to Parliament.

In 2007, she was elected to serve the Provincial Executive Committee and as Provincial Treasurer of the ANC in 2008. She previously served as a Member of the Limpopo Legislature and MEC for Agriculture and, prior to her appointment to the National Executive, as Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises.

The minister was sent questions by Independent Media regarding spy allegations, spending millions on luxury vehicles, and the money she earned while she was a spy, but she has not responded.

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Letsatsi-Duba’s alleged spy activities were masked through front company Motse Pele Security, a business in which she was one of the directors that was set up with her late husband, Mose Jacob Duba, in 1996.

Motse Pele was allegedly used to purchase luxury vehicles, direct funds to Letsatsi-Duba, and to rent safe houses, both locally and overseas.

Sources told Sunday Independent that there are more companies that were used for Letsatsi-Duba’s alleged spy activities, including a lodge in Polokwane.

It is further alleged that Letsatsi-Duba received her State Security Agency (SSA) in cash, and that Motse Pele was paid directly for operational costs.

The security company allegedly had Letsatsi-Duba’s luxury vehicles until late in 2018, when President Cyril Ramaphosa’s High Level Review Panel was alerted. After this, the cars were allegedly secretly returned to the SSA.

A former SSA official told Sunday Independent that Letsatsi-Duba was allegedly involved in the Polokwane Conference in 2007, in which former president Jacob Zuma took over from Thabo Mbeki. The official added that she was “handsomely rewarded” for the ‘job’.

Another source told the publication that Letsatsi-Duba had approached the former SSA director-general Arthur Fraser regarding money allegedly owed to her during her time as a spy. Fraser reportedly refused to pay the full amount, and was swiftly removed from his position shortly after Letsatsi-Duba was appointed State Security Minister in February 2018.

Charges were also laid against her by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane in March, due to what Mkhwebane she sees as “interference with the functioning of her office and contempt for her”.

According to the public protector, Letsatsi-Duba failed to hand over a declassified document relating to the alleged violation of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act by former minister of finance and current minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan.

“It is my respectful view that the Minister’s failure to avail the declassified report as subpoenaed amounts to contempt of the Public Protector and interference with the functioning of my office, and is therefore an offence,” Mkhwebane said.

“The Constitution makes it clear that no person or organ of state may interfere with the functioning of independent constitutional institutions such as my office,” she continued.

Letsatsi-Duba has yet to respond to questions sent to her over a month ago in lieu of the allegations.

(Compiled by Nica Schreuder, additional reporting by Daniel Friedman)

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