Gungubele quizzed on theft of cables on perimeter of SSA’s headquarters

Cape Town - The State Security Agency, which is supposed to provide the government with intelligence on domestic and foreign threats or potential threats, is prone to breaches of security at its headquarters in Pretoria.

This emerged when Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, was responding to written parliamentary questions from DA MP Dirk Jan Stubbe.

Stubbe asked Gungubele whether the security breach, where two feeder electric cables had been cut and stolen from the perimeter fence of the SSA headquarters at Musanda in January, had been reported to the joint standing committee on intelligence (JSCI).

He also enquired whether he had received a full report of the security breach and asked if he was briefed on it.

In his written response, Gungubele said the security breach was not reported to the committee. “The SSA does not report daily activities to JSCI, rather reports quarterly and or as per request from the committee on specific issues.

“Further, the security incident happened in the outer perimeter of Musanda, which is within the game camp area.

“The game camp area is not within the high-security zone of Musanda, which is layered with multiple security fences including electric fencing.”

Gungubele also said the security in the high-security zone was more heightened than in the game camp area.

The minister confirmed that he has received a full report on the breach.

Gungubele explained that electrical cables from Tshwane were stolen from the game camp adjacent to the outer perimeter fence of the SSA on January 21.

“The theft of the Tshwane electrical cables was reported to the SAPS as well as the SSA’s management and the minister.

“Consequently, the SSA has directed its security services to increase its security patrols and vigilance in the game camps to reduce the risk of theft of Tshwane electrical cables,” he said.

Meanwhile due to the heightened political killings in KwaZulu-Natal, an Integrated Multi-Disciplinary Task Team was launched in 2018 under the NATJOINTS to combat and investigate planned killings and assassinations.

“The SSA is part of this initiative.

Since its establishment, the task team has investigated 226 dockets which resulted in 251 arrests.”

Gungubele said that the SSA would continue to provide warnings to law enforcement authorities on planned political killings.

Cape Times