South Africa minister Malusi Gigaba ‘blackmailed’ over sex video

South Africa’s security services have been accused of hacking a politician’s phone after a sex tape emerged.

The 13-second video of Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba masturbating on his own has been shared widely on WhatsApp among South Africans.

His spokesman accused security services of stealing the video from his phone and he accused an opposition politician of leaking it to the public.

The spokesman said that the minister had started getting blackmail threats last year but Minister Malusi Gigaba has refused to entertain blackmail attempts. His spokesman, Vuyo Mkhize, told public broadcaster SABC that the people behind the blackmail have been demainding 10m rand ($690,000, £540,000).

On Sunday Mr Gigaba took to micro-blogging site Twitter, to apologise to his family and friends.
“The state security agency was behind the illegal interception of the minister’s communication/retrieval of the video from his phone,” he tweeted. This is not the first time Mr Gigaba’s sex life has filled South African newspapers. Times Live reminds its readers that his wife had a public spat with his mistress in 2015.