A former South African Air Force brigadier general has been sentenced to six months in a United States federal prison after admitting to secretly acting on behalf of the South African government while employed at one of America’s most sensitive national security research facilities.
Portia Anyamba, 59, was sentenced on 17 June 2026 by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee after pleading guilty to acting as an agent of the Republic of South Africa without notifying the US Attorney General, in violation of US federal law. She also pleaded guilty to making false statements on a government security clearance application.
The court further ordered Anyamba to serve two years of supervised release and pay a fine of $9,500 (approximately R155,000).
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Anyamba worked in 2023 and 2024 as a Program Management Operational Specialist in the National Security Program Office at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.
ORNL, established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, is one of the US Department of Energy’s premier scientific research facilities, conducting cutting-edge work in artificial intelligence, supercomputing, energy and national security.
Federal investigators found that Anyamba operated in the United States under the direction and control of the South African government while maintaining regular contact with an intelligence officer from South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA), identified in court records only as “IO-1”.
The officer was described as the SSA’s then-Deputy Chief of Station and former Acting Chief of Station at the South African Embassy in Washington, DC.
Court documents show that FBI agents monitored a meeting in Knoxville in February 2024 involving Anyamba, the intelligence officer and another South African government associate. The group met at a restaurant before moving to a nearby hotel.
On 7 November 2024, FBI agents intercepted Anyamba before another planned meeting in Knoxville and seized a laptop computer she was carrying.
At the same time, Anyamba was seeking a US government security clearance that would have granted her access to classified information. Prosecutors said she falsely declared on the standard SF-86 security questionnaire that she had no ongoing contact with foreign nationals and had not communicated with representatives of a foreign government during the previous seven years.
US Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III said the case demonstrated the government’s commitment to protecting one of the country’s most critical research institutions.
“Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a uniquely important Department of Energy facility,” Hamilton said. “Our office and our law enforcement partners will remain diligent in ensuring that its employees—and all government personnel entrusted with access to sensitive information—are trustworthy, candid, and pose no risk to national security.”
FBI Nashville Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly said Anyamba knowingly acted as an agent of a foreign country, placing US national security at risk.
He said the FBI and its partners would continue working together to identify and investigate threats to national security.
Joshua D. Martineau, Deputy Director of Counterintelligence at the Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, said the conviction highlighted the strength of cooperation between the department and the FBI in safeguarding sensitive government research and intelligence.
