The story of Thebe Maswabi and the Workers Association Union , a “labour union” for mine workers launched on South Africa’s troubled platinum belt, must count among the most astonishing examples of Jacob Zuma’s disregard for the Constitution he supposedly helped fight for and swore his allegiance to, twice.
When the WAU arrived on the scene in early 2014, there were almost immediately rumours that it had been formed specifically to neutralise AMCU by stealing its support. sensitive information from their rival trade unions”, he claimed in his affidavit. In other words, the WAU was to help the SSA spy on AMCU.
The SSA’s SO unit had been turned into a “parallel intelligence structure serving a faction of the ruling party and, in particular, the personal political interests of the sitting president of the party and the country”, the panel found. After the trio of SSA leaders left the agency, things got especially bad. While the SSA and especially the SO unit got up to all manner of politically-motivated mischief, the agency’s resources were plundered not only to fund dubious covert projects but also to enrich SSA officers, their friends and family and, apparently, even the minister .
In this regard, the deterioration of the agency was very much in line with the fate suffered by other state institutions during Zuma’s years in power. Zuma first strengthened his grip on the country’s intelligence environment by orchestrating the wholesale centralisation of previously separate intelligence-gathering entities. This happened in 2009, the very first year of Zuma’s term in office, which attests to the value the then president attached to exerting control over the country’s spooks. .
The skeletons have come out ... Now lets wait to see what else surfaces
So the Rogue Unit was squealing about the Rogue Unit undermining the State.