'Magosi is the DIS chief leaker'

Sharon Mathala | Monday September 19, 2022 06:00

The officer, Lesego Tsholofelo in an explosive affidavit, accuses his boss of recklessness and disregard for procedure, which has exposed and compromised classified information and the spy unit as a whole.

Tsholofelo, who holds the position of Director (Internal division within the DIS), dragged his boss before court on Wednesday detailing how an instruction from Magosi, which he says he advised the DG against, led to one of the biggest security leakages the country has ever experienced. In the leakage, over 100 covert agents’ names and information were exposed to the public.

Tsholofelo says sometime in 2020, Magosi embarked on a routine re-organisational exercise and this one, in particular, involved transfers of agents. “A substantial number of the affected officers were from my division.

After perusing the list, I decided to propose some suggestions to the second respondent (Magosi) regarding the transfers. Assisted by a certain senior intelligence officer and an assistant intelligence officer, I wrote a Savingram evenly dated to the second respondent in which I made certain suggestions and recommendations,” Tsholofelo shared.

According to the top DIS official, the suggestion he made to Magosi was that the practice within the DIS of transferring officers is to address them individually rather than to dispatch a list of officers as this could compromise their information.

“The rationale behind this practice is to minimise the risk of leakage of information relating to transfers, which would invariably contain identities of the officers,” Tsholofelo warned Magosi.

He further claims to have explained to his DG that in the event of a leak, it would be easy to trace the original correspondence. Going against his advice, the officer claims Magosi insisted that he prefers that the information be distributed by way of a comprehensive list.

“On August 31, 2020, following my meeting with the second respondent, the latter instructed me to dispatch information relating to the said transfers within the shortest possible time to the affected officers so that they could promptly relocate to their new stations.

I could not address individual letters to the affected officers in accordance with the practice preferred to the above, because the second respondent had emphatically told me that he preferred the mode of communicating his decision by way of using a list of the said officers. Any deviation from his preference, especially following the reminder I had volunteered at our meeting, was likely to be perceived as insubordination,” the officer further claims.

"And so he dispatched the communication of the list of over 100 DIS agents on transfer, some of whom were transferred to different government entities," Tsholofelo says. He said his worst fears were soon turned into reality, a few weeks later when the very same list was leaked to the public. Two weeks after the leak, Tsholofelo was slapped with a suspension letter by Magosi, in the letter seen by Mmegi. Magosi says what Tsholofelo had done was “a serious breach of national security and has far-reaching implications on the directorate as a whole.

"It appears that the second respondent had formed the opinion that I was the source of the leak. I vehemently refuse this assertion,” the DIS officer further tells the court.

A task team was immediately formed to investigate who could have leaked the information. Now serving a suspension for close to two years on full pay, Tsholofelo feels aggrieved. He points out that he has been stripped of his overtime allowance unceremoniously and that someone has since been appointed to his position during the suspension.

“I surmise that the second respondent has abandoned his intentions of commencing disciplinary proceedings against me. It seems such proceedings will never be held. Surprisingly, the second respondent has made a substantive appointment to my position. To me, this signifies that the second respondent (without any credible evidence) has found me guilty of the leak. Thus, it appears that my interdiction is penal in nature and not precautionary,” his affidavit further reads.

Tsholofelo further told the court he had tried in vain to engage the Permanent Secretary to the President, Emma Peloetletse to assist him. The case continues in November when parties will be expected to file heads of arguments.