Publication	Sunday Times
Date	2012-05-06
Reporter	Caiphus Kgosana
Web Link	www.timeslive.co.za

 
TOP MARKS: Mo Shaik got his former employer, the State Security Agency, to pay R100 000 for him to study at Harvard - to train for his new job
Picture: HALDEN KROG

The State Security Agency is footing a bill of over R100000 for former spy chief Mo Shaik to take an executive leadership training course at the prestigious Harvard Business School in the US.

The course is meant to prepare him for a senior post at the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

Shaik left for the US with his family this month to begin the all-expenses-paid, three-month course as part of a deal he negotiated when leaving the spy agency after falling out with State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele.

Insiders said Cwele admitted to staff that the agency was picking up the tab for Shaik's stay at Harvard - where he has been joined by his family- even though Shaik is no longer employed by the spy agency.

The Sunday Times reported last month that high-level talks were under way to move Shaik from intelligence services to the state-owned development finance institution, where he would head its international operations.

News of his imminent arrival at the bank has caused some unhappiness, with questions being raised about his qualifications, experience and suitability for the post.

Contacted for comment this week, Shaik confirmed, via SMS, that he was enrolled for the course at Harvard and had started classes.

He said the agency was footing the bill as part of an exit package he had negotiated. "The payment of fees was part of my separation package from the SSA [State Security Agency] consistent with policy."

Asked if it was standard practice for the agency to pick up the tab for training courses for staff that are exiting for other jobs, Shaik said he had negotiated his departure in this manner.

"All I'm saying is that I structured my exit package in this way, in favour of self-skilling, all of which is within policy," he said.

Cwele's spokesman, Brian Dube, refused to comment, saying: "Matters of intelligence training are sensitive and governed by confidentiality agreements."

Agency insiders said there was a great deal of unhappiness about the decision .

"How can an organisation that you no longer work for pay large sums of money to send you on a course to prepare you for your next job? This is a waste of money," said one official, who asked not to be named.

Jabu Moleketi, chairman of the DBSA board, told parliament's finance portfolio committee on Wednesday that the bank had acquired the services of a recruitment agency to help them scout for a new CEO and the head of the international division.

Former CEO Paul Ngobeni left at the end of March to pursue other interests.

Asked by DA finance spokesman, Tim Harris, if Shaik was a candidate to head the international division, Moleketi said anyone with the requisite qualifications and experience was free to apply for the post.

The head of the international division will be responsible for managing the bank's R15-billion worth of investment projects in Southern African countries.

The successful candidate will also take the lead in identifying suitable investment destinations in other sub-Saharan countries and in developing countries in the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) forum.

Shaik is a former adviser to Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, when she was foreign affairs minister, and has held various influential positions, including that of South Africa's consul-general to Hamburg and ambassador to Algeria.

He was a trusted aide of President Jacob Zuma when the latter was head of ANC intelligence in exile and is known to still be extremely close to the president.

His brother, Schabir Shaik, used to be Zuma's financial adviser and was convicted of fraud after a trial involving bribes paid by a French arms company to secure Zuma's support in their bid to win arms deal contracts.

Mo Shaik used to head the foreign branch of the State Security Agency and was under pressure to leave following his much publicised spat with Cwele. Their relationship soured when Shaik refused to obey certain instructions from the minister.

Cwele is said to have agreed to pay for the leadership training course because he was eager to get rid of Shaik.

With acknowledgements to Caiphus Kgosana and Sunday Times.

Moe Shaik studied optometry at UDW.

He is neither a professional intelligence operative nor a banker.

But I have never ever heard of the state funding the re-education of someone whose service it terminated.

Except of course in Cambodia.