Former spy boss Arthur Fraser lays criminal charges against Sydney Mufamadi

Former State Security Agency (SSA) director-general Arthur Fraser has laid a criminal charge of perjury against SSA officials, former politician Sydney Mufamadi, and state-capture commission evidence leaders.

“The falsehoods peddled during what our client considers the monumental compromise of the country’s intelligence by SSA officials have left him with no choice but to lay criminal charges against those who conspired to tell the nation blatant and deliberate falsehoods,” said his lawyers Kgoroeadira Mudau Attorneys.

Fraser laid the charges at the Hillbrow police station in Johannesburg on Sunday against:

• Sydney Mufamadi, chair of the high-level review panel that investigated the SSA
  
  
• Acting SSA director-general Loyiso Jafta
  
  
• An anonymous witness known as Ms K
  
  
• A Mr Y
  
  
• Commission advocate Paul Pretorius SC
  
  
• Advocate Veruschka September

The attorneys said Fraser believes the evidence was designed to pre-empt his request to assist the commission. They said instead, the commission decided to call these officials and shut the door on him.

Mufamadi is a former chair of a high-level review panel into the SSA. The panel was appointed in June 2018 to assess the structure of the SSA relative to its mandate and inquire into its systems and capacity.

Ms K and Mr Y are two SSA spooks who testified before the commission and whose real identities have been withheld.

In his testimony in 2020, Mr Y alleged a former boss of the SSA special operations unit, Thulani Dlomo, allegedly turned the unit into a factional structure meant to protect former president Jacob Zuma and his political allies.

Mufamadi, Jafta, and Ms K made allegations against Fraser at the commission last week. These include that Fraser ran operations to the tune of R125m in the 2017/2018 financial year that were not accounted for and that he approved an operation in which rogue intelligence operatives were used to infiltrate the ANC 2017 Nasrec elective conference.

“Our client has long indicated that these testimonies were undesirable as they had the potential to compromise the security of the country forever,” Fraser’s attorneys said.

They said Fraser remains available and willing to assist the commission in presenting to it the facts at his disposal.

“To date, our client has not been invited to the commission and we consider such to be unfortunate. Lies were told to the nation under oath and before the commission and the entire world, with the assistance of those employed to help the nation discover the truth.”

The attorneys said the evidence presented by these witnesses compromised the security of the people and the state.

“Our client hopes that law enforcement agencies will investigate these treasonous acts and perjury aimed to deceive the nation.”

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