Spooks Galore

As top SARS officials face charges, Noseweek takes another look at the secret world of Johann van Loggerenberg and his friends in the media – a world of intrigue and subterfuge that is generally but not always in a good cause

- Johann Van Loggerenberg

When MuzI sIkhakhane sc was appointed by acting SARS Commissioner Ivan Pillay to head an external panel to probe allegations of impropriety against its top investigator Johann van Loggerenberg, it didn’t take long for the panellists to realise the extent of their task. In front of him was marshalled a body of veteran spooks, not slow to trot out testimony that was “self-serving, false and irrelevant”.

Some members of the Revenue Service contingent, who were “hypnotised by Mr Van Loggerenberg’s perceived power and charm”, were “clearly prepared to protect him at all costs”, Sikhakhane wrote in his November 2014 report. On the other hand, he added, others had adopted a hostile stance towards the charismatic official “as a result of what we viewed as organisational dynamics”.

“We had to walk a tightrope in placing our trust in the truthfulness of witnesses whose trade is largely in the intelligence craft,” reads the Sikhakhane report. “Such officials are an essential component of any state. However, some choose the faking of sincerity, deception and intrigue as their preferred tools of trade.”

Significantly, Sikhakhane adds: “The recruitment of former intelligence officers within its ranks was a double edged sword for SARS. It afforded SARS the opportunity to make great strides in its own investigations. (But) with all their requisite and usually helpful skills, they can alter the very nature, culture and operation of an otherwise civilian structure. It may have the effect of turning a civilian structure into a command and control theatre of intrigue and subterfuge.”