Former spy boss Arthur Fraser was removed from his top job because he had a “strong personality” and his continued presence would make it difficult to investigate the agency’s affairs.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, in court papers filed in the High Court in Pretoria, reveals how his new Minister of State Security Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba asked him to remove Fraser from his position and deploy him elsewhere.
“The minister informed the president that she was of the view that Mr Fraser would have to be transferred out of the ... [State Security Agency] before the panel could begin its work. Her view was that Mr Fraser’s strong personality would not be conducive to the investigation of the panel. The president accepted the minister’s view that Mr Fraser would have to be transferred out of the SSA,” Ramaphosa said in the papers.
Ramaphosa is opposing an application by the DA that Fraser be removed from the position of director-general of the Department of Correctional Services, to which the president deployed him after removing him from the State Security Agency.
The DA’s court challenge was instituted two days before a showdown between Fraser and inspector-general of intelligence Setlhomamaru Dintwe, who wanted the high court to interdict Fraser’s decision to revoke his security clearance.
Read the full story in the Sunday Times.
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