JustIn Blacke

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The South African Secret Service (SASS) was the previous name of a South African intelligence agency. Currently, it is known as the Foreign Branch of the State Security Agency. It is responsible for all non-military foreign intelligence and for counterintelligence within the Service itself. It is also responsible for gathering, correlating, evaluating and analyzing this intelligence.

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

Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public sources. The assembly and propagation of this information is known as intelligence analysis or intelligence assessment.

Intelligence agencies can provide the following services for their national governments.

Give early warning of impending crisis;

Serve national and international crisis management by helping to discern the intentions of current or potential opponents;

Inform national defense planning and military operations (military intelligence);

Protect sensitive information secrets, both of their own sources and activities, and those of other state agencies;

Covertly influence the outcome of events in favor of national interests, or influence international security; and

Defense against the efforts of other national intelligence agencies (counterintelligence).

There is a distinction between "security intelligence" and "foreign intelligence". Security intelligence pertains to domestic threats (e.g., terrorism, espionage). Foreign intelligence involves information collection relating to the political, or economic activities of foreign states.

Some agencies have been involved in assassination, arms trafficking, coups d'état, and the placement of misinformation (propaganda) as well as other covert and clandestine operations, in order to support their own or their governments' interests.

The SASS was formed in 1994 following South Africa's 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 and the Minister of State Security.  The Service is run by a Director-General. Prior to 2009, the Service was a self-governing organization which was a member of the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee (NICOC). Since 2009, the South African Secret Service is now a division of the State Security Agency (South Africa) 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 Coordinating Committee to the Minister of State Security.  In August 2013, the Minister for State Security, Siyabonga Cwele, 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)

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 and similar groups abroad in relation to South Africa's security, and the activities of illegal South African mercenaries, most especially in parts of Africa and Iraq. The South African Secret Service is one of the elite intelligence organizations in Africa; another is the State Security Service in Nigeria.

A mercenary (sometimes shortened to merc) – also called a soldier of fortune, a hired gun, or, archaically, a sellsword – is a private individual who joins a military 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 rather than for political interests.

Beginning in the 20th century, mercenaries have increasingly come to be seen as less entitled to protection by rules of war than non-mercenaries. The Geneva Conventions declare that mercenaries are not recognized as legitimate combatants and do not have to be granted the same legal protections as captured service personnel of the armed forces.[3] In practice, whether or not a person is a mercenary may be a matter of degree, as financial and political interests may overlap.  Agent JustIn Blacke, of Sorts, Is No Exception.