Portia ‘Posh’ Anyamba, a former South African Air Force brigadier general, was recently sentenced to jail in the US for being a foreign agent for this country. (Photo: SA National Defence Force’s post / Facebook) Former South African Air Force brigadier general Portia “Posh” Anyamba’s family home in the Eastern Cape used to be frequented by uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) operatives at night when this country was still an apartheid state.
This was apparently how she was introduced to underground ANC activities, which eventually led to her leaving this country.
Daily Maverick reported on Wednesday, 8 July 2026 that Anyamba was sentenced to half a year in jail and fined in the US last month.
‘Paid to give SA reports on events’
She previously pleaded guilty there to acting as an agent for South Africa and to submitting false information in an application to obtain a US security clearance.
Anyamba had also tried to conceal that she was in contact with a South African State Security Agency (SSA) official who was linked to this country’s embassy in Washington, DC.
She entered a plea agreement, which said evidence in the case suggested that South African officials paid her “to attend think-tank style public functions and events” at the SSA official’s request.
“The defendant would then provide written reports for the benefit of the Republic of South Africa about those functions and events,” the plea agreement said.
Soweto and the Eastern Cape
In the run-up to her being implicated in this matter, she had been working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the US’s largest science and energy laboratory which carries out research “to address the nation’s energy, environmental, and security challenges – ensuring America’s future”.
The South African government has not yet commented on the case.
/file/attachments/orphans/127639878_1297410327324862_9151471076078812850_n_287129.jpg "Portia ‘Posh’ Anyamba, a former South African Air Force brigadier general, was recently sentenced to jail in the US for being a foreign agent for this country. (Photo: SA National Defence Force post / Facebook)")
A Facebook post from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), dated November 2020, delves into Anyamba’s extensive background.
It details her journey from birth to the US, where she is now detained.
The post referred to her as Portia Nozipho Sibiya, which suggests she may have married and taken the surname Anyamba.
According to the SANDF post, Anyamba was born in Soweto, Gauteng, in March 1967, and her family moved to King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape a few years later.
Medical studies, Mandela and MK
She completed her schooling in the town of Sterkspruit and wanted to practise medicine.
This saw her become one of the first students to enrol for medicine at the health sciences faculty at what was then the University of Transkei (UNITRA).
The SANDF post said: “As fate would have it, Brigadier General (ret) Sibiya’s family home was frequently visited by uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) guerrillas at night, due to its proximity to the Telle Bridge Border that connects RSA to Lesotho.
“This was her introduction to the [… ANC] underground activities and this new-found knowledge coincided with an increase of police raids at UNITRA.”
The raids resulted in a student’s death, missing students, and some being forced into hiding.
According to the SANDF post, the UNITRA unrest escalated after the Cradock Four assassinations – the 1985 murder of anti-apartheid activists.
Anyamba, apparently inspired by a quote attributed to democratic South Africa’s first president, Nelson Mandela (“The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight”), dropped out of medical school and went to “an ANC hideout”.
This was against her father’s wishes since he had apparently believed Mandela was a bad influence on young people.
‘I’ve left SA’
The SANDF post said that Anyamna left a note for her family saying: “Please do not look for me, do not go to UNITRA. I’ve left South Africa.”
After that, her family was “forced to endure harassment and intimidation by the apartheid authorities”.
Anyamba joined MK.
The SANDF post included a quote that appears to be from her, which reads: “Separations, after crossing the border, took place in Zambia. Everyone drew/picked pseudonyms and [we] were given two options: join the military in West-Angola or go to school in East Tanzania.”
Anyamba “chose military camps” but later felt that more mature individuals chose to focus on their education.
“Determined to play her part in liberating our country, General Sibiya decided to survive life in the military camps with all its limitations of not being allowed to speak freely; shortages in food and the loss of lives of fellow comrades,” the SANDF post said.
This experience taught her “that I am strong and capable, both mentally and physically. […] Another lesson is that human beings are more effective as a group than as individuals.”
Chris Hani and Thabo Mbeki
Among those Anyamba encountered during that time was anti-apartheid activist Chris Hani.
Anyamba completed her studies in Nigeria in 1998 and afterwards joined the air force.
She climbed the ranks and in 2000 became the first woman to command a South African Air Force unit.
The SANDF post said that in 2007 Anyamba was appointed “as a Defence Attaché in France, where she was the only female General in the region, until 2011”.
It added: “She still holds dear, a phone call from then-President Thabo Mbeki, who said he was proud of her and encouraged her to do her best.”
Anyamba retired from the air force in 2011.
US ‘national security risk’
“Life after the military, allowed her to marry and complete her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in the United States of America (USA),” the SANDF post said.
Daily Maverick established that a University of Maryland University College brochure lists her as among its 2014-2015 graduates.
According to the brochure, Anyamba obtained an MBA degree, which matches what the SANDF Facebook post said.
/file/attachments/orphans/3554773086_8e8b390f57_b_0_443734.jpg "The Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. (Photo: Oak Ridge National Laboratory / Wikipedia)")
That post added: “[She] deserves continued recognition and celebration for submitting her life and personal aspirations in service of building ‘a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law’ as is described in the Preamble of the South African Constitution.”
The US now has a different take on Anyamba.
A press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, from mid-June 2026, relating to her case, quoted Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Terence Reilly as saying: “Anyamba knowingly acted as an agent of a foreign country which placed national security at risk.” DM