Moe Shaik

Riaz "Moe" Shaik (born 1958 or 1959), also spelled Mo Shaik, is a South African civil servant, diplomat, businessman, and former intelligence operative who has been the South African High Commissioner to Canada since 2022. He is a former chief of the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee and a former director of the foreign intelligence wing of the State Security Agency, at that time still called the South African Secret Service.

During apartheid, Shaik practiced as an optometrist and worked in the underground structures of the African National Congress (ANC) in Natal province, reporting to Umkhonto weSizwe commander Jacob Zuma. He was known for his work in ANC intelligence, particularly as part of Operation Vula. In the post-apartheid period, he worked as a special adviser to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Lindiwe Sisulu in the Ministry of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation.

Shaik was also a key political ally of Zuma, who was elected President in 2009 and appointed Shaik to lead the South African Secret Service in October 2009. He left the position in February 2012 due to his poor relationship with Siyabonga Cwele, Zuma's Minister of State Security.

Early life and education Shaik was born in 1958 or 1959 in Johannesburg, in the former Transvaal, and grew up in Durban in the former Natal province. His father, Lambie, was an upholsterer, a Muslim, and an Indian South African from Pietermaritzburg in Natal; his mother, Rabia, He also received a Master's degree in optometry.

Early career In the 1980s, Shaik practiced optometry in Durban while working secretly for the anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC). His brother Yunus recruited him into the ANC in the early 1980s, inducting him into an underground intelligence cell that reported to the ANC's southern command in Swaziland.

In 1985, Shaik and Yunus were arrested by the Security Branch of the South African Police; they were detained without trial under the Internal Security Act and were held in solitary confinement for nine months, during which Shaik said he was tortured by police officers.

Post-apartheid career Until 1996, Shaik was the chief of the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee, one of the most senior positions in the post-apartheid intelligence sector. He went on to serve as head of ministerial services in the Ministry of Intelligence Services and from 1997 as Deputy Coordinator of Intelligence Services. From 2003 to 2004, he worked in the Department of Foreign Affairs, both as head of the department's policy research and analysis unit and as special adviser to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time.

Support for Jacob Zuma Shaik was widely identified as a personal friend, close associate, and political supporter of his former MK comrade Jacob Zuma during and after the latter's tenure as Deputy President of South Africa from 1999 to 2005. In 2003, after Bulelani Ngcuka of the National Prosecuting Authority revealed publicly that Zuma had been investigated for corruption, Shaik and Mac Maharaj, another Zuma ally, told the press that Ngcuka had probably been an apartheid spy. The basis for the claim was an Operation Bible file opened on Ngcuka in the late 1980s. The claim was found untrue by a specially appointed commission of inquiry, the Hefer Commission, and in 2020 Shaik said that he regretted having made the allegation.

It was also reported that Shaik had played a key role as an adviser to Zuma during Zuma's successful campaign to be elected as ANC President at the party's 52nd National Conference in December 2007. It was also rumoured that Shaik and an associate, Cyril Beeka, co-owned the Elexions Agency, the company which administered the election at the conference; Shaik strongly denied the rumours.

State Security Agency When Zuma was elected President of South Africa in the 2009 general election, the Mail & Guardian reported that Shaik was considered a frontrunner for two high-profile posts in the public service: the Director-General in the Department of Foreign Affairs or the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency. Instead, on 2 October 2009, Shaik was appointed head of the South African Secret Service, the foreign intelligence wing of the new State Security Agency. During his tenure in the position, Shaik was named in leaked American diplomatic cables, written before his appointment in 2009.

Shaik resigned from the State Security Agency in February 2012, following months of reports that he had fallen out with Siyabonga Cwele, the Minister of State Security. He confirmed this in 2019;

Later positions In August 2012, the Development Bank of Southern Africa announced that Shaik had been appointed as chief executive of its new subsidiary, Development Bank International.

In January 2020, Shaik and Menzi Simelane were appointed as special advisers to Lindiwe Sisulu, who was then the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation. The following month, he resigned because of the controversy his appointment had caused.

After the end of Zuma's term as president in 2018, Shaik spoke publicly about his relationship with Zuma, including in testimony to the Zondo Commission, and was critical of Zuma's conduct while in office.

Since 2022 he has been High Commissioner to Canada.

The ANC Spy Bible In 2020, Shaik published an autobiography, The ANC Spy Bible: Surviving Across Enemy Lines, which he co-wrote with Mike Nicol.

Personal life Shaik is married and has at least one child.