[4] During the same period, he was a member of the exiled South African Communist Party, eventually gaining election to its Central Committee in 1984.
[4] In that capacity, in 1984, Sigxashe was appointed – with Aziz Pahad and Mtu Jwili – to Hermanus Loots's Stuart Commission, which investigated the causes of the Mkatashinga mutiny in MK's camp at Viana, Angola.
In October 1995, one of his deputies, Muziwendoda Mdluli, was shot dead in an apparent suicide that some viewed as a murder;[7] and Sigxashe reportedly had an unhappy relationship with the Minister of Intelligence, his former MK comrade Joe Nhlanhla.
[8] In the June 1999 general election, Mandela was succeeded as president by Thabo Mbeki, who announced on 20 October 1999 that his former security adviser, Vusi Mavimbela, would replace Sigxashe as director-general of the NIA.
[9] The government explained the change by pointing out that Sigxashe would reach retirement age in 2000;[8] the opposition Democratic Party welcomed his removal from the position.
In October 1995, while Sigxashe was NIA Director-General, the South African Police Service intervened in a domestic quarrel at his home; the NIA denied media reports that the police had been summoned after Sigxashe threatened to shoot his wife and children, suggesting that journalists were being fed false information amid internecine battles in the intelligence community.