Johannesburg – Tributes continue to pour in after the death of South Africa’s Ambassador to the Republic of Algeria, Billy Masetlha.
One such tribute was from the Congress of the South African Students (Cosas), which hailed him for being a founding member of the organisation.
“He was arrested for furthering the aims of the ANC.
“In 1976, Masetlha joined uMkhonto we Sizwe. He went into exile in Zambia in 1979 and joined the external mission of the ANC, specialising in youth and student organisations,” read the statement.
The SACP said he played a key role in the military pillar of the Struggle, graduating from being a student activist and leader to receiving military training and serving as a member of the joint ANC and SACP liberation army, uMkhonto we Sizwe.
“Masetlha was also active in the underground pillar of our struggle to end apartheid rule and replace it with democracy and a better life for all through democratic transformation and development,” read the SACP statement.
Masetlha will also be forever remembered for his work as head of the National Intelligence Agency, particularly in 2005, when it was revealed that he had been instructed by President Thabo Mbeki to use the agency to help find evidence against former president Jacob Zuma and those backing him.
In what was termed the “hoax-email” saga, a communiqué showed written emails purported to have been written by NEC and government officials seeking to use state institutions to discredit Zuma and ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe.
It is via these emails that Zuma was called “Zulu boy”.
The emails were then sent to several journalists as authentic communications between the Mbeki faction in the ANC, which then triggered panic in the security services.
In 2007, The Star objected to an application made by former president Thabo Mbeki and Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils to have documents forming part of the record of spy boss Billy Masetlha's court case not disclosed to the public.
Former presidents Mbeki and Kasrils had made an application to the Constitutional Court to intervene and objected to the disclosure of certain documents in the record of appeal.
At the time, the newspaper's attorney, Dario Milo, of Webber Wentzel Bowens, said: "The case involves the right of the media to access information of public interest as against national security considerations."
"The significance of the Constitutional Court's interim ruling in favour of The Star is that it recognises that the default position is full access to the court documentation, with the onus placed on the state to justify why specific documents should be restricted."
Meanwhile, the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), which was a friends of the Constitutional Court, and Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils did not follow proper procedure when trying to withhold certain documents from the public.
The Star