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‘CIO, SA intelligence agency spied on Zim media outlets, NGOs’

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Johannesburg — Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and its South African counterpart co-ordinated plans to spy on “subversive” non-governmental and media organisations in the two countries.

Johannesburg — Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and its South African counterpart co-ordinated plans to spy on “subversive” non-governmental and media organisations in the two countries.

The collaboration is revealed in South African espionage secrets leaked to the Doha-headquartered global news network Al-Jazeera, and British newspaper The Guardian.

Cables released on Wednesday revealed that the South African State security agency planned with its Zimbabwean counterpart to spy on “rogue” non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and “subversive” media.

One of the documents is a “joint action plan” between the South African State Security Agency (SSA) and CIO to share intelligence on threats to their countries, and to “monitor and exchange information on rogue NGOs”.

The cables also revealed a plot to assassinate the African Union Commission chief and South Africa’s ex-Foreign Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2012.

South Africa’s official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, said the leaks were “likely to be the cause of considerable embarrassment” to the State security agency.

The South Africa government has launched an investigation into the leak, the country’s State security minister said on Wednesday.

“A full investigation has been launched into the purported leakage,” State Security minister David Mahlobo said in a statement.

“The leaking of the purported documents detailing operational details of the State Security Agency is condemned in the strongest possible terms.”

The leaked documents dating from 2006 to late 2014 consist mainly of communications between South Africa’s intelligence agency and other services around the world, such as Britain’s MI6, Russian intelligence and the American CIA.

The files also document past South African monitoring of suspected Iranian spies as well as communication between SSA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency. — AP/AFP