Why spy chief Arthur Fraser escaped the chop
Why was SA’s former top spy moved to the post of national commissioner of correctional services instead of being suspended? It may be because, in politics and intelligence, trade-offs must be made
Irrational and unreasonable, illegal and unconstitutional. Gross abuse of public office in order to achieve improper ends. This was the description given for the conduct of SA’s former top spy by the intelligence watchdog shortly before he was unceremoniously moved to head the prisons as national commissioner of correctional services. It was a really bad week for Arthur Fraser. The known Jacob Zuma ally, who has been accused of running parallel intelligence networks within the State Security Agency (SSA), was swiftly shifted out of his position of power after he overstepped a line which few others would dare to cross. In unprecedented fashion the dirty linen of the intelligence agency was hung out in court papers and in a media statement in which Setlhomamaru Dintwe, the inspector-general of intelligence (IGI), accused Fraser of revoking his top-secret security clearance as a way of thwarting an investigation in which Fraser himself was directly implicated. Usually the underbelly of...
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