A former South African Air Force brigadier general has been sentenced to six months in prison in the United States after pleading guilty to acting as an unregistered agent of the South African government and lying on a US security clearance application.
Fifty-nine-year-old Portia “Posh” Anyamba was sentenced last month by a federal court in Tennessee. In addition to her prison sentence, she was ordered to pay a 9,500 US dollar fine and will remain under supervised release for two years after her release.
South Africa’s government has not yet commented on the case.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Anyamba worked as a Programme Management Operational Specialist in the National Security Programme Office at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 2023 and 2024.
The laboratory, established as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II, is now a key US Department of Energy facility conducting research in energy, science and national security.
SSA contact
US prosecutors say the investigation found that Anyamba maintained regular contact with an intelligence officer from South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA), identified in court papers only as “IO-1”. The FBI said the official served as the SSA’s Deputy Chief of Station, and previously Acting Chief of Station, at the South African Embassy in Washington, DC.
Court documents describe two meetings between Anyamba and the intelligence officer in Knoxville, Tennessee, during 2024. The first was monitored by FBI agents after the pair met at a restaurant before moving to a nearby hotel. Ahead of a second meeting in November, prosecutors say the intelligence officer instructed Anyamba to “bring the laptop”. FBI agents intercepted her before the meeting and seized the laptop from her possession.
Security clearance lies
According to prosecutors, Anyamba was applying for a US government security clearance at the time, which would have given her access to classified information. They say she falsely declared that she had no ongoing contact with foreign nationals or representatives of a foreign government during the previous seven years.
Court documents also allege that Anyamba contacted people listed as references on her application and asked them not to mention “anything about the embassy” during security interviews.
US Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III said Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a critical national security facility and that authorities would continue to ensure employees entrusted with sensitive information are “trustworthy, candid, and pose no risk to national security.”
FBI Nashville Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly said Anyamba had “knowingly acted as an agent of a foreign country, which placed national security at risk.”
The investigation was led by the FBI’s Nashville Field Office and the US Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence.
Who is Portia Anyamba?
Six years before Portia “Posh” Anyamba was sentenced to prison in the United States for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, the South African Air Force celebrated her as one of its trailblazers.
In a 2020 #ThrowbackThursday Facebook profile titled Embracing Our Collective Heritage, the Air Force praised retired Brigadier General Portia Nozipho Sibiya, now known as Anyamba, for dedicating her life to building South Africa’s democracy and urged that she be recognised as one of the country’s military pioneers.
According to the 2020 SANDF profile, Anyamba was born in Soweto in 1967 before her family moved to King William’s Town and later to Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape. She enrolled to study medicine at the former University of Transkei in 1985, intending to become a doctor.
The Air Force said her life changed when uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) operatives frequently visited her family home because of its proximity to the Lesotho border. The encounters introduced her to the ANC’s underground structures at a time of growing unrest, police raids and student activism.
Inspired by Nelson Mandela’s words that “the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight”, she abandoned her medical studies and secretly left South Africa to join the ANC in exile.
According to the SANDF account, she left her family a handwritten note that read: “Please do not look for me, do not go to UNITRA. I’ve left South Africa.” The profile says her family was subsequently harassed by apartheid security forces.
After crossing into exile, Anyamba joined MK and chose military training over further studies. She spent time in military camps, where she later recalled enduring strict discipline, food shortages and the loss of fellow recruits. The experience, she said, taught her resilience and the importance of collective action.
Among the memories she treasured most was a private meeting with ANC military leader Chris Hani.
Following South Africa’s transition to democracy, Anyamba completed her studies in Nigeria before integrating into the South African Air Force in 1998 as a lieutenant colonel.
The SANDF said she became the first woman to command a South African Air Force unit in 2000. Four years later, at the age of 36, she was promoted to brigadier general and later served as South Africa’s Defence Attaché to France between 2007 and 2011.
The profile also recalls a phone call from then-President Thabo Mbeki, who congratulated her on her achievements and encouraged her to continue serving the country.
After retiring from the Air Force in 2011, Anyamba moved to the United States, where she completed a Master of Business Administration before later joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
