Corrupt South Africans beware, SA has a new spy boss: report

Advocate Mahlodi Muofhe has been appointed head of the domestic branch of the State Security Agency (SSA), according to a report on Tuesday.

News24 says he was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, with the concurrence of state security minister Ayanda Dlodlo.

Of his new role, Muofhe was quoted as saying he would focus on maladministration.

"It's absolutely critical to comprehend that the intelligence service in a democratic dispensation such as ours, if properly managed, can save the country from all the ills of corruption and maladministration afflicting our country, both in the public, as well as the private sector."

Muofhe previously alleged undue influence by former president Jacob Zuma over state appointments.

Testifying before the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture late last year, ANC leader Advocate Ngoako Ramatlhodi and Muofhe, his former adviser, said Muofhe was offered the post of national director of public prosecutions and believed the condition of his appointment would be that he “did not touch” Zuma's ally in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Nomgcobo Jiba.

Muofhe said Zuma was upset that then NPA head Mxolisi Nxasana had charged Jiba. He told the commission he believed Zuma wanted to appoint him, but that Jiba would be the “default” NPA head. Former NPA head Shaun Abrahams was eventually appointed.

Muofhe also spoke of how he received a letter from one of the Gupta-owned companies, “directing” him and Ramatlhodi to attend a dinner at the family’s Saxonwold compound, a week after they joined the mineral resources department.

“It was not a request in the normal sense, where you are requesting someone to have dinner. You are directing a person to come and have dinner at your place. We were directed to be there on a Thursday,” Muofhe said.

He and Ramatlhodi declined the invite, a move he described as the beginning of the end for them.