The very first questions News24 investigative reporters asked when former spy boss Arthur Fraser exploded his Phala Phala bombshell remain central to getting to the bottom of the matter. This is how we investigated it, writes Pieter du Toit.
The first thought when news broke on Wednesday 1 June 2022 that one Arthur Fraser had lodged a criminal complaint at the Rosebank police station against President Cyril Ramaphosa, was that his claims were too fantastical to be true.
Fraser, the former spy boss deeply implicated in allegations of corruption and fraud at the State Security Agency, the man who ran a parallel intelligence service for the benefit of former president Jacob Zuma and who allegedly handed over the so-called "spy tapes" to him in 2006, is a compromised man. He is believed to have "files" on almost everyone, which in political circles, makes him dangerous.