SABC journalist Lukhanyo Calata left his office at Parliament at around 2.30pm on Friday. For the previous three days he had been working on a piece related to the upcoming Freedom Day celebrations, and Friday was his editing day. Having completed his work, he left early.

“On Saturday morning, I got a call from my colleague asking if I had taken my laptop with me,” Calata told the Daily Maverick. He had not. “Then she told me that her laptop isn’t there either, and neither are other colleagues’, and she suspects they were stolen.” Calata has not returned to the office since, as he has been working from Johannesburg, but has spoken to his other colleagues to verify that other laptops were indeed taken from the office. No other electronic equipment was targeted.

The burglary at the SABC’s offices makes a mockery of the increasingly draconian security measures introduced by Parliament over recent years. No signs were found of forced entry at the offices, which are in a building which is supposed to be guarded by police.

The Right2Know campaign has termed the break-in “an attack on the public broadcaster and on Parliament itself”. The lobby group expressed concern that the apparent target was journalists’ laptops, “suggesting that those behind the crime were after sensitive or personal information that is on the journalists’ computers”. Right2Know also noted that the break-in took place “in a context where there is a broader pattern of harassment and targeting of SABC workers”.

Calata was one of the so-called SABC 8: journalists initially fired by the public broadcaster last year after protesting against its policy of not broadcasting footage of violent protests. After a legal challenge they were subsequently reinstated. Members of the SABC 8 – including Calata – appeared before Parliament to blow the whistle on conditions at the SABC and received threats for doing so. An SMS sent to four of the SABC 8 the day after their parliamentary testimony, and seen by the Daily Maverick, read:

“TRAITORS. PROTETING UR WHITE FRIENDS IN PARLMENT WHO STARTED THIS. TELLING LIES ABT UR CDES. U WERE WARN. WE DON’T KILL BLACKS. BUT SIT AND WATCH THE BLOOD FLOW.”

Who – or what – is behind this intimidation?

“It’s impossible to say for sure, but we’ve seen a pattern of unexplained break-ins targeting those who seem to be critical of government and the Zuma faction,” R2K communicator Busi Mtabane told the Daily Maverick.

“One possibility is that it might be linked to the current ongoing battle between certain politicians [and] Hlaudi Motsoeneng and his cabal who are hellbent on hijacking the SABC.”

The Democratic Alliance, meanwhile, fingered the State Security Agency in its response to the break-in. “Given a history in seizing laptops, and involvement in campaigns to intimidate journalists – as was revealed during the SABC inquiry – the DA will request that the Inspector-General of Intelligence, Dr Sethlomamaru Dintwe, investigate the State Security Agency’s possible involvement in this latest break-in,” said DA shadow minister of communications Phumzile van Damme.

In referring to the SSA’s “history”, Van Damme was referencing previous allegations made by the SABC 8 that the SSA had tapped their phones. In order for the SSA to legally intercept telecommunications, it requires permission from the so-called “Rica judge”, Judge Yvonne Mokgoro, to do so – after submitting evidence that the interception is essential to prevent criminal or terrorist activities. Last month, Judge Mokgoro told the DA that she had not authorised the SSA to tap any phones belonging to SABC employees. The Inspector-General of Intelligence has said that he will investigate.

The notion that the SSA is overreaching its mandate is one that appears to be supported by Deputy Minister of Public Works Jeremy Cronin, who told an audience in Cape Town last week that the SSA “is spying on half of us”. At the same event, Cronin expressed concern about the growing atmosphere of intimidation against those who speak out against government – and cited as an example former Social Development official Zane Dangor.

Dangor, who was director general of Social Development before resigning in protest at the handling of the social grants crisis, saw his house targeted in a suspicious burglary after his resignation. The Sunday Times subsequently reported that Dangor had also received threatening phonecalls and texts.

“The threats stopped after the Sunday Times article,” Dangor told the Daily Maverick on Tuesday. “Aside from the break-in and home invasion, the warning of continuous threats came in the form of credible alerts from people in the intelligence community.”

Intimidation and threats are now extending to the highest levels of the ANC’s National Executive Committee. Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu confirmed to City Press last weekend that she had received death threats. “Yes, I did get intelligence in June that my life was in danger,” Sisulu told the newspaper. “I am taking the necessary precautions to make sure that I am safe in whatever environment that I am in, because I do not want to take any chances.”

The Mail & Guardian had subsequently reported that Sisulu had escaped two assassination attempts, possibly linked to her willingness to challenge President Jacob Zuma during meetings. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, meanwhile, said on Monday that he had heard that his name was on the same “list” as Sisulu’s.

This is all playing out against a backdrop of very real political assassinations in KwaZulu-Natal, where a spate of political killings apparently sparked by the local government elections last August has continued unabated. According to City Press, the murders of at least 12 “councillors, municipal officials and civic activists” have happened since the establishment of a commission of inquiry in October.

As R2K notes, it is impossible to say with certainty which forces are behind this culture of intimidation, though the role of the SSA seems increasingly problematic. One thing is certain, though: to be a dissenting voice in the South African public space requires ever more bravery. DM

Photo: Original photo by Rod Waddington via Flickr.