The State Security Agency has distanced itself from a so-called "intelligence report" on alleged judicial corruption.

This as a well-known Aids denialist confirmed he was the document's author and said he had engaged with Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe over certain of its claims.

"The State Security Agency has noted with concern a document that is doing the rounds on social media purporting to be some intelligence report on judicial corruption, which is allegedly written by the director-general, Ambassador Thembisile Majola," the SSA said in a media statement on Tuesday afternoon.

"The State Security Agency would like to distance itself and the director-general from such a report."

Hours earlier, the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence confirmed the same report was not the product of any state intelligence investigations.

OIGI legal advisor advocate Jay Govender told News24 on Tuesday:

Our preliminary investigation indicates that the report is not an official product of the State Security Agency or any of the intelligence services overseen by the Inspector-General of Intelligence.

Instead, the 54-page report - which United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa had incorrectly claimed was "purportedly drafted by Ms Thembisile Majola, the recently resigned director-general of the State Security Agency" - was written by Anthony Brink, an advocate who has waged a litigious war against Legal Aid South Africa over its decision not to employ him.

This is made apparent by a footnote on the last page of the report, which stated it was "an updated, slightly abridged, and trivially edited version [November 2023] of the original document couriered earlier in the year to State Security Agency director-general Thembisile Majola and then to Minister in the Presidency for State Security Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, both of whom ignored it".

"The author's contact particulars are provided at corrupt-judges.co.za," the footnote stated - in reference to one of the websites run by Brink.

In response to queries from News24 about his authorship of the report, Brink said Holomisa had "missed that the report is a 'specimen draft', as indicated in the footers on the first and last pages".

In other words, it is not a finalised document from an established intelligence source, which makes the ease with which it was widely shared on social media particularly jarring.

While anonymous fake intelligence reports have previously been used by then-president Jacob Zuma to fuel his antipathy towards the National Treasury, as well to justify his axing of then-finance minister Pravin Gordhan, Brink has not sought to conceal his authorship of this draft document - or the personal ire that has fuelled it.

On his "corrupt judges" website, Brink accuses Judge President Dunstan Mlambo, the former chairperson of Legal Aid, of criminality linked to his non-hiring in 2009 and the litigation that followed it - all of which he lost.

He told News24 that Hlophe, who is currently facing a removal vote in Parliament after being found guilty of gross misconduct, had phoned him and "directly confirmed" claims from two unnamed sources about Mlambo, which he repeated in his draft "intelligence report".

According to Brink, Hlophe told him he had objected to the appointment of a female lawyer as part of the tribunal that would try him for gross misconduct on the basis of her alleged inappropriate relationship with Mlambo.

News24's attempts to verify this with Hlophe have proved unsuccessful.

In an affidavit filed in his litigation to overturn the Judicial Service Commission's finding of gross misconduct against him, Hlophe had admitted having been in contact with Brink.

He stated through Brink, it had come to his attention a "serious complaint" was lodged against Mlambo about "his alleged involvement in lobbying" to have the aforementioned female lawyer assigned to the Judicial Conduct Tribunal which investigated the complaint against him.

Brink's report further ...