She also provided materially false statements in connection with her efforts to obtain a security clearance.
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The United States District Court, for the Eastern District of Tennessee, at Knoxville has sentenced 59-year-old South African Portia Anyamba for being an agent of a foreign country.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Anyamba, a former South African Air Force brigadier-general. was sentenced on 17 June 2026.
As part of a plea agreement entered with the court, she pleaded guilty to one count of acting as an agent of South Africa and one count of making false statements in her security clearance application.
The US said an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Nashville field office and the United States Department of Energy Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence revealed that Anyamba was acting in the US under South Africa’s direction and control.
She also provided materially false statements in connection with her efforts to obtain a security clearance.
Anyamba was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, to be followed by two years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay a $9 500 (about R155 000) fine.
FBI investigation into Anyamba
According to plea documents filed with the court, Anyamba worked as a programme management operational specialist in the national security programme office at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 2023 and 2024.
ORNL is a US Department of Energy facility dedicated to energy, innovation and national security, among other things.
“During the course of the investigation, FBI agents learned Anyamba regularly communicated with an intelligence officer, identified in court documents as ‘IO-1’ – working for the Republic of South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA), IO-1 was known to the FBI as the SSA’s then-deputy chief of station and former acting chief of station at the SA Embassy in Washington, DC,” said US authorities.
“In February 2024, IO-1 communicated with Anyamba and arranged a meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee. FBI agents surveilled the planned encounter and watched as Anyamba met IO-1 and another individual known by the FBI to be affiliated with South Africa.
“Although the group originally met at a restaurant in a Knoxville commercial district, they soon drove to a nearby hotel. After the meeting, Anyamba left the hotel and returned to her residence, where FBI agents watched her retrieve an item from her car and take it into her house.
“Thereafter, Anyamba and IO-1 planned another encounter in Knoxville. Prior to the meeting, IO-1 instructed her: ‘Please remember to also bring the laptop with.’ On 7 November 2024, in Knoxville’s Turkey Creek shopping district, FBI personnel intercepted Anyamba immediately prior to her planned meeting with IO-1 and retrieved a laptop from her custody.”
‘False information’
According to the US, Anyamba was in the midst of her application process for a United States government security clearance, which, if granted, would have provided her access to certain classified information.
As part of that application process, she certified and submitted a form attesting to certain information. The form, known as a “SF-86”, advises applicants that providing false information may result in criminal penalties.
However, Anyamba said she had had no contact with a foreign national and had not had contact with representatives of a foreign government in the past seven years.
Court documents state that, knowing her answers to be both material and false, Anyamba answered “no” to both questions. She also contacted individuals she listed as references and told them: “I have just gotten information that they have started with the interviews. They are sensitive about foreign connections. So please don’t mention anything about the embassy”.
“Anyamba knowingly acted as an agent of a foreign country which placed national security at risk,” said Terence G Reilly, special agent in charge, Nashville field office.
“All across the country, each and every day, the FBI and our strategic partners will continue to work together to review intelligence and investigate threats to our national security to protect our citizens from foreign and domestic attacks,” said Joshua D Martineau, deputy director counterintelligence, Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence.
