Pretoria - The first Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Dr Sizakele Sigxashe, passed away on Wednesday.
President Jacob Zuma has paid tribute to Dr Sigxashe, saying he served NIA with pride, efficiency and diligence as its top civil servant and an accounting officer.
"His selfless service to the people of South Africa will be sorely missed," said Zuma in a statement on Thursday.
"On behalf of the Government and the people of South Africa, we convey our deepest condolences and may his soul rest in peace."
According to the Presidency, Dr Sigxashe was born on 21 June 1937.
He has worked as Chair of the Intelligence Services Council on Conditions of Service and was assigned as Researcher to Military Intelligence and seconded to Defence Ministry in Angola in 1976.
He joined the ANC in 1959 and Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) in 1970. He joined Umkhonto we Sizwe's intelligence arm when it was formed in 1978 and was rewarded for his long service in the organisation as one of its low-key background operatives rather than a high-profile activist, by being given the post as Director-General of NIA's domestic operations.
A committed struggle activist, Dr Sigxashe joined the ranks of freedom fighters who left South Africa after the Rivonia Treason Trial to join the underground operations of the African National Congress.
He completed a PHD in Economics in Russia and thereafter worked as university lecturer in Dar es Salaam in the 1970s, while doing underground work for the ANC, joining MK's intelligence arm when it was formed in 1978.
