The so-called ”Special Browse Mole Consolidated Report”, dismissed by the Presidency as the product of a campaign by discredited ”information peddlers”, was produced illegally by the Scorpions and in contravention of their mandate, Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence said on Tuesday.
The report, leaked into the public domain last year, outlines evidence that the Angolan intelligence establishment planned covertly to support former deputy president Jacob Zuma in his presidency bid.
It also refers to a meeting of African leaders where possible military backing for Zuma was allegedly discussed, and reports on a meeting of former Umkhonto weSizwe veterans that apparently suggested that the local security establishment should support a pro-Zuma coup if necessary.
The document was leaked to Zuma’s supporters at the Congress of South African Trade Unions and seriously embarrassed the Scorpions and the government domestically and in Africa.
On Tuesday, the intelligence committee said it found that the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), or the Scorpions, made use of informants, information peddlers and private intelligence companies to compile the report.
Committee chairperson Siyabonga Cwele said that the motive behind the report was not ideological, but part of efforts to get access to state money.
”The DSO doesn’t have the mandate to collect political intelligence. They don’t even have the capacity. They fell prey to information peddlers,” he said.
According to the committee’s findings, the Scorpions took no corrective measures after the report was produced. ”They did not take any action against the senior special investigator from whom the leak originated. They also neglected to take action against the illegal activities of those who were involved in the production of the Browse Mole report.”
”The document is extremely inflammatory, containing political intelligence and numerous allegations and unsubstantiated statements about prominent political figures in South Africa and the African continent,” the committee found.
Steps against Scorpions
Cwele said the committee has no authority to suggest what steps should be taken against Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy in light of these ”severe findings”. He said this is up to the executive, adding: ”We have no view on the matter.”
He also said there is no link between efforts to disband the Scorpions and the timing of the release of the committee’s findings. ”I can’t see a link. We are talking about things which didn’t go right in one of our agencies. There are good individuals … and others doing things which are against the law.”
The committee also dismissed claims by the Scorpions that they had decided the ”Browse” report had no formal status and that investigators should dismiss it as the ”work of sinister forces”.
”The DSO had not shelved the Browse Mole report as stated, but had in fact acted on it in order to pursue or consider prosecution … [The] DSO actually believed the intelligence which they received,” Cwele said.
He did not know how the document got its name, but suggested it was perhaps a code name used to identify it. ”Even the DSO couldn’t give us a clear answer. There was initial scanning [of information] but we don’t know what type of mole or why it was browsing.”
National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete said there was every reason to be concerned, especially about the ”information peddlers”, adding: ”They already have done serious damage in one SADC country at top level.” She would not say which country.
Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane last year dismissed the report as the product of a campaign to destabilise South Africa and the region.
However, the Mail & Guardian reported in August last year that discussions with informed intelligence sources and documents in the newspaper’s possession made it clear that much of the evidence the report details was acquired from informants state agencies have been happy to rely on for information.
Chikane insisted that these people had ”deliberately” woven real events together with ”provocative, deliberate and baseless allegations”.