Schabir Shaik's brother, Mo Shaik was there for support. Pic: JAMES OATWAY.

Shaik is one of three Thabo Mbeki-era outsiders appointed on Friday by President Jacob Zuma to head up the country's streamlined State Security Agency (SSA).

Both the service, which focuses on intelligence operations abroad, and the National Intelligence Agency, which has a domestic mandate, will now fall under the SSA.

Previously, these were stand-alone agencies under the former Department of Intelligence.

The NIA will now be run by Lizo Gibson Njenje, a former NIA deputy director-general who left after being embroiled in the botched surveillance of Mbeki loyalist and businessman Saki Macozoma.

Both Njenje and Shaik will report to SSA director-general Mzuvukile Jeff Maqetuka, a former director-general of home affairs and the current SA ambassador to Algeria.

With acknowledgements to Paddy Harper and Sunday Times.