In a nutshell: The beleaguered SAPS Crime Intelligence, after being alerted by a “minister in the security cluster”, uncovered a threat of “some magnitude” to the country’s “national security” just prior to the ANC’s 2017 elective conference at Nasrec. Another Zuma-dominated security actor, the State Security Agency (SSA), on the other hand, did a sweep and found no immediate threats and continued to monitor the conference until its conclusion on 19 December, with no major threats detected. These were two parallel security universes, one empty and other full of smoke, mirrors, electromagnetic blankets and the R45-million “Nasrec grabber solution”.