By Hajira Khota

Former SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni employed State Security Agency (SSA) VIP protection illegally, demonstrating her authority and proximity to former President Jacob Zuma at the time.

This is disclosed in the first section of the state capture report, which Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, the head of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, gave to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday.

According to the findings, Myeni utilised state security resources to defend herself and threatened other board members. According to the information presented to the inquiry, Myeni had access to covert agents skilled in counter-intelligence and intelligence collection tactics.

Outa’s Wayne Duvenhage spoke to Radio Islam International; says that, Myeni is one of the kingpins in state capture when it comes to Eskom and SAA to illegally vet employees.

This occurred during Myeni’s tenure as board chair. According to the commission the method was judged to be futile, damaging, and illegal because the workers were not screened primarily to assess whether they would reveal classified material,

As a result of having access to classified material, 118 employees at South African Airways were exposed to an invasive, intrusive, and excessively personal vetting procedure, according to the Zondo Report.

According to Justice Zondo’s recommendation, says that the government should introduce or change current legislation to protect whistleblowers.

“We would have been a lot worse off if we did not have information from whistleblowers and also to fight corruption” says Duvenhage.

It was suggested that Ramaphosa take note of the SSA’s role in security vetting and take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that the agency’s services are not exploited in the future to serve the interests or agenda of certain persons.

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