The office of South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is “not happy” that he was among the world leaders targeted for phone tapping using spyware.
The country’s acting minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said the state’s intelligence agency would have to investigate whether President Ramaphosa’s phone was tampered with.
She said they believed it infringed on the president’s privacy and the nation’s sovereignty “to make its own decisions without other countries trying to pre-empt [them]“.
“There are always diplomatic channels to find information on decisions of South Africa,” she added.
President Ramaphosa is among thousands of people believed to have been targeted by the Pegasus software, which infects phones and allows operators to spy on their targets.
Its leaked database is said to include the mobile phone numbers of at least a dozen heads of state and governments.
The Israeli-based NSO group – the makers of the software – denied wrongdoing and said it sold the equipment only to vetted governments to combat crime and terrorism.
Source: BBC
