Cyril Ramaphosa is one of a number of world leaders who may have been spied on through their phone.
According to The Guardian in the UK, Ramaphosa’s phone had likely been put under surveillance using ‘Pegasus’ spying technology, a technology developed by an Israeli firm, the NSO Group.
The revelations come as part of a global investigative journalism initiative which looks at how Pegasus has been used on prominent figures around the world.
Other global leaders who were on the list included Emmanuel Macron, the president of France; Mohammed VI, the Moroccan king; Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the biggest opposition party in India; and the Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan.
It appears that Ramaphosa was placed under surveillance at the request of the Rwandan government. Relations between South Africa and Rwanda have been strained for some time, with agents of the Kagame regime having been implicated in the murder of Rwandan dissidents on South African soil.
The Guardian noted that the presence of someone’s name on the list did not mean that they had been spied on successfully or that their phone had been hacked.
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