News24 | amaBhungane | Fazel misconduct probe stalls as secret service billions go unchecked

• Very little progress has been made in the probe into alleged misconduct by suspended Inspector-General of Intelligence, Imtiaz Fazel.
• Fazel says the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence initially presented it as an active investigation, but then appeared to concede no substantive investigation had been completed.
• A central allegation concerns the role of the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee in the revocation of Fazel’s security clearance – something he contends is legally flawed.

More evidence has emerged of a seemingly chaotic scramble by South Africa’s intelligence apparatus to neutralise the now-suspended Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI), Imtiaz Fazel.

A newly emerged letter, penned by Fazel, dated 9 June and addressed to Parliament, contains fresh allegations against the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee (Nicoc) and the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI), reports amaBhungane.

The letter, for the first time, implicates Nicoc in Fazel’s suspension by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 14 October last year. It also reveals that the JSCI had told Ramaphosa in February this year that its investigation into Fazel’s alleged misconduct, which originally justified his suspension, had been “restarted”.

In doing so, the JSCI has seemingly abandoned the basis of its initial recommendation for Fazel’s removal – four months after the fact.

Fazel’s letter, seen by amaBhungane, is addressed to National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza and her deputy, Annelie Lotriet.

“On 15 April 2026, I wrote to the chairperson of the JSCI [Sylvia Lucas]. I expressed concern that, despite having informed the president on 20 September 2025 that it was investigating my conduct, and despite that supposed investigation having formed the basis for my suspension by the president, the JSCI now appeared to accept that no such investigation had in fact been conducted,” wrote Fazel.

READ | Crime can’t be classified ‘top secret’: MPs won’t let executive block them from seeing IGI

Fazel’s letter also indicates that Nicoc, an umbrella body of security agencies, had an alleged irregular involvement in the revocation of his security clearance, a development that paved the way for the subsequent push to remove him.

“On 12 December 2025, President Ramaphosa informed me that the JSCI had recommended that I should be removed from my position following a decision by Nicoc to permanently revoke my security clearance. Nicoc is [mainly] comprised of the State Security Agency (SSA), the Crime Intelligence Division of the South African Police Service, Defence Intelligence (DI), and the Coordinator of Intelligence – the intelligence services for which I have oversight responsibility.

“I also pointed out [to Lucas] that the JSCI had relied on Nicoc’s decision to permanently revoke my security clearance when it recommended my removal from office, notwithstanding the absence of any legal authority on Nicoc’s part to take such a decision. Despite its expertise, the JSCI has not explained why it believed that Nicoc had the authority to permanently revoke my security clearance.”

READ | SSA revoked Intelligence inspector general’s top-level security clearance

In his letter, Fazel also indicates that while the president had been told one thing – that the investigation had been “restarted” – Fazel himself was effectively told that these things, unfortunately, just take time.

“On 21 April 2026, the chairperson of the JSCI informed me that the investigation had been delayed by ‘preparatory processes’ and the ‘gathering of information’. I was told that, once the committee had considered the information before it, the specific allegations of misconduct would be communicated to me, and I would be afforded an opportunity to respond. The chairperson also said that the delays were not attributable to bad faith and that the committee remained committed to minimising any prejudice arising from them… I noted that no explanation had been given for the committee’s delays. Nor was any explanation given as to why, more than seven months after the JSCI informed the president that I was being investigated, the matter remained at a preliminary stage.”

Last month, amaBhungane reported on an explosive court application by Fazel to overturn his suspension and the withdrawal of his security clearance, challenging Ramaphosa, Didiza, the JSCI and Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni (among others) to provide evidence that he was behind the leaking of confidential information.

Critically, Fazel’s papers provide context into why he may have been targeted in his removal from office, having led several probes into the country’s intelligence structures while facing systematic resistance in doing so.

This is outlined in a dramatic letter he drafted to Ramaphosa just two weeks before his suspension last October.

In Fazel’s version of events, he had begun to shake the security services’ tree – putting a target on his back.

READ | Ramaphosa suspends Inspector-General of Intelligence Imtiaz Fazel following complaint

On 22 July 2025, two weeks after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi broke rank in his now famous press briefing, the JSCI informed Fazel that it was investigating three complaints against him: (i) a complaint received from Nicoc, acting on a report received from an intelligence service; (ii) a complaint received from DI; and (iii) a complaint related to the disclosure of classified information about a property procured in Durban by Crime Intelligence for operational purposes.

On at least one front, the third one above, Fazel has been publicly vindicated.

As part of the wider complaints against Fazel, the JSCI is probing whether he was behind the leaking of a classified report into SAPS Crime Intelligence (CI), implicating the unit’s head, Dumisani Khumalo, and suspended SAPS national commissioner Fannie Masemola.

According to various reports and public statements, Fazel’s probe into CI, which was initiated in January 2025, following a referral by former police minister Senzo Mchunu, focused on the procurement of covert properties.

It also addressed issues related to security clearances and the hiring of Dineo Mokwele as a Brigadier to head the Technical Support Services division of CI in April 2024.

Earlier this month (11 August), the Investigative Directorate Against Corruption’s (IDAC) Drushantha Ramsamy testified before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, alleging that Mchunu arranged for someone to fly and meet with now-suspended IDAC chief investigator Dylan Perumal, to hand over the IGI’s classified report.

All I know is that the Minister sent the report that IGI refused to give us to Mr Perumal. And in terms of the Act and the mutual legal assistance that we usually give them, it is not proper procedure.

In other words, if the report was leaked, it was not by Fazel but rather by Mchunu.

Approached for comment, Mchunu said: “At this stage I would not want to respond, but I will issue a statement on this topic and other matters in due course.”

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya would not be drawn to comment on aspects of Fazel’s letter to Parliament related to Ramaphosa.

“This matter is in court. Therefore, we are not going to publicly engage over it until those court processes are completed.”

Nicoc acting coordinator Dr Ntandazo Sifolo didn’t answer specific questions put to him by amaBhungane about Nicoc’s alleged decision to “permanently” revoke the IGI’s security clearance, claiming Nicoc could only account to the JSCI.

“It is in this respect that the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee wishes to kindly submit that it is unable to comment on intelligence-related or classified matters. We are therefore not in a position to provide any detail on the matters raised in your enquiry. This is consistent with the statutory framework governing the intelligence services, including protection of information legislation.”

You can access his full response here.

Didiza confirmed that she had received the letter from the IGI and said she had engaged with the JSCI on the issues raised therein.

READ MORE | Crime Intelligence cut crimefighting budget to fund R120m property purchases – IGI report

Questioned about whether she was concerned that the IGI has been on suspension for close to a year without any update into the investigation of his alleged misconduct, Didiza said: “The JSCI will be meeting this week to, among other things, to deliberate on this matter [sic].”

Despite a back-and-forth between the IGI, the president and the various intelligence structures, one thing is evident: the upwards of a billion rand held within the secret service accounts for CI, DI and the SSA have, for more than a year, been without oversight, all while the fate of the IGI hangs in the balance.

This story was produced by the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism. Sign up for their newsletter.