22 Oct 2017

This is with reference to the news item titled ‘Rogue Security Agents on the Loose – DISS, OP, Immigration fingered in scam to defraud foreigners’, by Kabelo Dipholo, published in The Voice newspaper on October 20, 2017.

It is alleged in the news item that a syndicate of rogue security agents, immigration officials and Office of the President officials are using forged documents to deport foreign business owners, citing the case of a certain Nigerian national, Bright Chukwu.

The contentions made in this story are factually incorrect and baseless. 

It is unfortunate that the author of this story and his editor chose to use selective information, which is not verified, derived solely from the utterances of a bitter girlfriend aggrieved by the deportation of her foreigner boyfriend, to draw misleading conclusions with the intention to create sensation without substance. 

The sole purpose of providing such incomplete information is clearly to make sensation without substance and mislead the public.

It further demonstrates little or no understanding of fact-checking and other journalistic standards on the part of the author and his editor.

The Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) strongly refutes the contents of the article which do not depict the correct picture of the conduct of business in the Directorate.

There are no rogue security agents in the DISS and such conduct would not be permitted under any circumstances in the Directorate. 

The DIS is guided in the conduct of its work by the Intelligence and Security Act 2007.

The Directorate would never conduct any activities that contravene this Act and appropriate action will be taken where it is established that a breach has occurred.

We are unaware of any incident in which our staff have been implicated in the forging of deportation documents. 

In this context we challenge the author and his source of information to bring forward evidence of forged documents and evidence of businesses that have been taken over by security agents from deported foreigners.

As the Directorate has stated in the past, should any member of the public suspect that a member of the DIS has engaged in some form of unlawful behaviour, it is both their right and responsibility to report the matter to the police, who are in turn obliged to investigate any credible allegations of an offence. 

Members of the public can also lodge any complaints about our service with the Registrar of the High Court who is obliged, within seven days, to forward the same to the Chairman of the Tribunal on Intelligence and Security, with a copy to the Minister responsible.

The Directorate will not hesitate to take decisive action against any wrongdoing or illegal conduct of any of its agents.

The DIS will continue to do its job without fear, favour or prejudice and will not hesitate to speak up against attempts to confuse the public with obscure, unsupported, or unbalanced reporting. BGCIS