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 Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

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 obj ...

. 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. It can be described as t ...

and for

counterintelligence Counterintelligence (counter-intelligence) or counterespionage (counter-espionage) is any activity aimed at protecting an agency's Intelligence agency, intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering informati ...

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: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

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 (SSA) 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, ...

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 politician who served in the cabinet of South Africa from September 2008 to May 2019, most recently as the Minister of Home Affairs between 2018 and 2019. He was appointed as th ...

, 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 * 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 , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

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

mercenaries A mercenary is a private individual who joins an War, armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rath ...

, most especially in parts of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

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, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

In popular culture

The SASS appear in the 2017–2018

Millarworld Millarworld Limited is an imprint of comic books published by Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar as a creator-owned line, featuring characters created by him in a shared fictional universe, the Millarworld, or Millarverse. These characters ...

comic book series '' Kingsman: The Red Diamond'', primarily embodied by Agent Kwaito.

References

External links