Johannesburg – A former spy boss has slammed statements made by State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele about a probe into the Gupta family, claiming a 2011 investigation into the conduct of the Guptas led to several top officials being sacked.

Gibson Njenje, former director general of the State Security Agency (then called the National Intelligence Agency), was one of those who lost his job because of the row over the Gupta probe in 2011, the Mail & Guardian reported on Friday.

Others who lost their jobs over the Gupta probe were foreign intelligence chief Moe Shaik and National Intelligence co-ordinating committee head Jeff Maqetuka.

Njenje said Cwele was “talking nonsense” when he said he had shut down an improper operation.

Concern

“The issue of the Guptas has been there for a long time,” said Njenje. “They have not been hiding their conduct. If intelligence was not concerned, we would have been foolish. The concern was how they conducted themselves.”

Cwele earlier in the week denied that Njenje, Shaik and Maqetuka were fired for probing the Gupta family.

“What was stopped was an irregular investigation which involved the use of state security assets to fight private business interests that have no bearing on our work to uphold national security,” Cwele said through his spokesperson Brian Dube. 

An angry Njenje said there was nothing irregular about the probe.

“If I were to explain [details of the investigations], I would have to go through everything. I left in 2011 and he [the minister] is talking nonsense about personal interests. In the position I held, I was able to talk to the Guptas and I did. I established certain things and I spoke to people about it. His [Cwele] attempt to protect information is provoking us…There is a lot of information we picked up from intelligence [about the Guptas].”

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