Minister of mineral resources and energy Gwede Mantashe’s claim of foreign-funded attempts aimed at discrediting him are extremely disturbing if they are proven to be true.

Interference in SA’s internal affairs has been in progress for almost 75 years. It is a recorded historical fact that a foreign intelligence service betrayed Nelson Mandela in 1962, and the tip-off led to his capture. He was arrested near Howick on August 5 1962. Even today the world's intelligence institutions are constantly monitoring events in SA.

The global community will not tolerate such blatant intrusions. Intrusive spying is a gross violation of diplomatic protocol and international law.

The Rockefeller commission found that the CIA examined two to three million postal items annually during the early 1960s. In the UK, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have spied on Britain’s partners in the EU, especially France, to find out their negotiating position in talks about trade and finance matters.

In his book, The Second Oldest Profession, author Phillip Knightley wrote: “The intelligence community hates the government of the day, of whichever party. It juggles our destinies in the name of protecting them. And it’s able to do so because of the secrecy with which it surrounds itself, a secrecy which corrodes a democratic society. It is no accident that as intelligence agencies have expanded, our civil liberties have contracted.”

The activities of the world’s intelligence agencies are unremitting and relentless and often in contradiction of the apparent political realities. Covert action against friends and help to those on the other side all happen regularly in the twilight world of the intelligence war. America and her allies and their reckless intrusions will come back to haunt them for decades.

Farouk Araie, Actonville, Benoni