The South African Secret Service (SASS) was the previous name of a

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objective ...

. Currently, it is known as the Foreign Branch of the State Security Agency. It is responsible for all non-military foreign

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

and for

counterintelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...

within the Service itself. It is also responsible for gathering, correlating, evaluating and analysing this intelligence.

History

The SASS was formed in 1994 following

n first multiracial elections. It was created to take over the foreign intelligence functions of the now-defunct National Intelligence Service (NIS), with the domestic intelligence responsibilities taken up by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). Both the SASS and NIA were created as part of the Intelligence Act of 1994. The service performs intelligence at the request of the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and the Minister of State Security. The Service is run by a Director-General. Prior to 2009, the Service was a self-governing organisation which was a member of the National Intelligence Co-Ordinating Committee (NICOC). Since 2009, the South African Secret Service is now a division of the

State Security Agency (South Africa) The State Security Agency is the department of the South African government with overall responsibility for civilian intelligence operations. It was created in October 2009 to incorporate the formerly separate National Intelligence Agency, South ...

and still responsible for foreign intelligence, retaining its own branch Director. The State Security Agency Director General and the SASS foreign intelligence Director in turn report via the National Intelligence Co-Ordinating Committee to the Minister of State Security. In August 2013, the Minister for State Security,

Siyabonga Cwele Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele (born 3 September 1958) is a South African doctor and politician, a long-serving member of the African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political pa ...

, announced the new foreign intelligence Director as Batandwa Siswana. Other appointments made at the same time were Joyce Mashele as deputy director general for collection, Africa and Matshidiso Mhlambo as deputy director general for the rest of the world.

Directors-General

* 1995 – 1996 Mike Louw * 1996 – 1999 Billy Masetlha * 1999 – 2009 Hilton Dennis * 2009 – 2012

Mo Shaik Moe Shaik, also known as Mo Shaik (born 1958 or 1959), is a South African civil servant and former intelligence operative. He is a former chief of the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee and a former director of the foreign intellige ...

* 2012 – 2013 Simon Ntombela (acting DG) * 2013 – 2016 Batandwa Siswana * 2016 – 2020 Joyce Mashele (acting DG) * 2020 – 2021 (suspended) Robert McBride * 2021–present Joyce Mashele (acting DG)

Current status

The Service is extremely secretive about its operations, and thus few details reach the public. However, when taking current South African policy and concerns into account, it appears the attentions of the SASS are currently focused on two main areas: The activities of

Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

and similar groups abroad in relation to South Africa's security, and the activities of illegal

mercenaries A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...

, most especially in parts of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and Iraq. The South African Secret Service is one of the elite intelligence organisations in Africa; another is the State Security Service in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

References

External links

Official SASS site
{{Authority control 1994 establishments in South Africa Government agencies established in 1994 South African intelligence agencies

History

Directors-General

Current status

See also

References

External links