SSA had no respect for Constitution, Jafta tells Zondo commission

The Commission of Enquiry into State Capture on Tuesday heard that State Security Agency (SSA) was badly run and corruption was rampant, with executive overreach and illegal activities prevalent.

These damning allegations were put to the fore by SSA’s acting director-general Loyiso Jafta.

“Systems for proper management particularly of the finances and their expenditure were not adhered to,” said Jafta.

He said a number of officials in the agency had their names in the debtor’s register and owed millions to the agency.

“I could not understand how it could be that members would owe a state organisation so much money,” he said.

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“It then became apparent that monies were also being expended often in some cases on projects that were outside the boundaries of our legal mandate.”

Jafta said there was no respect for the law or the Constitution at the agency.

“When the law or the Constitution barred one from doing certain things, creative ways were conjured up to go around the Constitution to go around the law and do things that were unlawful,” he said.