ANC president Jacob Zuma will be free from the shadow of prosecution from tomorrow. Acting National Prosecuting Authority boss Mokotedi Mpshe is set to announce to the nation that corruption and fraud charges against the country’s presidential frontrunner have been dropped.
Mpshe is also expected to reveal that police are to institute criminal investigations into the conduct of several high-profile South Africans for allegedly meddling in the NPA’s case against Zuma.
The decision, which comes after an exhaustive two-day meeting of the NPA’s top management earlier this week, has divided the NPA and angered investigators and prosecutors who worked on the case.
They believe Mpshe and his senior managers have buckled under pressure from the ANC, which wants Zuma to be unencumbered by corruption charges when he takes the oath of office next month.
“They’ve lost their nerve. They’ve lost their stomach. They’ve lost their appetite,” an official with inside knowledge of the behind-the-scenes deliberations said angrily.
Zuma is believed to have already been informed about the NPA’s decision to withdraw the charges against him.
The spy tapes allegedly implicate, among others, Mbeki, former director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, former Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy and former justice minister Brigitte Mabandla.
Behind the scenes at the NPA, senior prosecutor Billy Downer, who led the Zuma prosecution team, was not convinced that charges must be dropped, while the NPA’s deputy national director, Willie Hofmeyr, took a different view.
Downer insisted that a judge of the high court be the one to decide whether — based on new information — charges should be dropped.
Mpshe and Hofmeyr argued that the recordings had the potential to create national instability should they be made public in court.
Mpshe, according to insiders, was also worried that should the matter go ahead, the image of the NPA “would be irreparably harmed” as a result of the conduct of some of its former officials.
Mpshe and Hofmeyr also argued that the NPA could be compelled to charge people like Mbeki, McCarthy and Ngcuka if the Zuma matter went ahead in court: “It was going to be a question of the former president and the current president standing in the dock. Imagine what that would do to the image of the country,” said an official close to the deliberations.
The argument that the case against Zuma was too strong to be dropped now was supported by axed NPA boss Vusi Pikoli who told the Sunday Times on Friday that the NPA should subject its evidence to the courts.
“The court is best placed to determine the impact of the political interference on the mountain of evidence the NPA has. The reputation of the NPA is at stake. They have to satisfy the public that they did not waste taxpayers’ money.”
An individual close to the case said: “On merit, there is a strong case against Zuma; the motive for me is irrelevant.”
An NPA insider said that the “decision to recharge Zuma was taken long before any of the (taped) conversations with Mbeki happened. Mbeki could never influence McCarthy because they never had any relationship. Mbeki is too aloof and McCarthy is too arrogant.”
He said Mpshe and Hofmeyr would do anything to “secure their future. They are looking after themselves. They stated in sworn affidavits that they had a strong case — unless they were lying under oath”.
McCarthy’s conversations were recorded for three weeks before the 2007 ANC Polokwane conference, where Zuma ousted Mbeki as party president. He was again monitored for three weeks after the conference.
Security cluster officials claimed it was during this spy operation that the following was captured:
Ngcuka, who was no longer prosecutions head at the time, was taped urging McCarthy to arrest Zuma a few days before the Polokwane conference. It is believed that some NIA officials and SA Police Service intelligence operatives warned against this, fearing instability in the country.
McCarthy was again monitored, speaking to Mabandla shortly after Polokwane. Mabandla phoned McCarthy and asked him to take a guess on who was sitting with her. It was Mbeki, who McCarthy immediately addressed as “Mr President”.
Mbeki responded: “I do not know if I am still the president.”
McCarthy replied: “To me, you’ll always be Mr President.”
Mbeki and McCarthy made an appointment to meet. This was, according to former colleagues of McCarthy, in regard to McCarthy’s job application at the World Bank, where he is now employed as head of the bank’s anti-corruption unit.
These revelations, according to security and ANC officials, are among a number of examples submitted to the NPA by Zuma’s legal team.
Zuma’s lawyers first made their submission in writing, before an oral presentation a fortnight ago.
It was during the oral presentation — held away from the NPA offices — that they played recordings of McCarthy’s conversations with Mbeki and with director-general in the Presidency the Rev Frank Chikane, presidency chief operating officer Trevor Fowler, Ngcuka, Mabandla and businessman Mzi Khumalo. Government officials believe some of the conversations were fabricated.
Hofmeyr listened to the tapes and took notes.
McCarthy’s cellphone was bugged by the police’s Crime Intelligence Unit and the National Intelligence Agency.
Permission to intercept McCarthy’s phone calls was granted by a High Court judge after the police presented an affidavit alleging McCarthy was involved in criminal activity.The Sunday Times has found no evidence of a criminal investigation into McCarthy and could not establish the name of the judge who granted permission to probe McCarthy.
The Sunday Times has established that Zuma’s representations contain top secret information obtained by the presidential task team appointed to probe the Scorpions over the Browse Mole Report.
Browse Mole was a Scorpions document drawn up in 2006 under McCarthy’s supervision; it suggested Angola and Libya were funding Zuma and that some of his supporters were plotting to overthrow Mbeki.
The task team, which submitted its report to the National Security Council, is believed to have unearthed damning information about how the Scorpions unit involved itself in ANC politics ahead of the Polokwane Conference.
NIA spokesman Lorna Daniels declined to comment.
The Sunday Times has it on good authority that Ngcuka has requested to listen to the tapes.
McCarthy has made a similar request.
The Sunday Times understands that the tapes have not been put before all the people alleged to have been communicating with McCarthy.
The NPA has sent questions in writing to McCarthy, who wrote back saying it was irregular to respond to questions about tapes that he had not listened to. He said the NPA’s behaviour amounted to an ambush.
Mbeki and Mabandla could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.
Ngcuka declined to comment on the matter but in a statement to The Times last week he denied allegations that he manipulated the NPA or used it as a tool to frustrate Zuma’s ambition to become president.
He also said it was a matter of grave concern that in a democratic state surveillance by a state agency could fall into the possession of the lawyers of a person accused in a criminal trial.
McCarthy was again monitored, speaking to Mabandla shortly after Polokwane. Mabandla phoned McCarthy and asked him to take a guess on who was sitting with her. It was Mbeki, who McCarthy immediately addressed as “Mr President”.
Mbeki responded: “I do not know if I am still the president.”
McCarthy replied: “To me, you’ll always be Mr President.”
Mbeki and McCarthy made an appointment to meet. This was, according to former colleagues of McCarthy, in regard to McCarthy’s job application at the World Bank, where he is now employed as head of the bank’s anti-corruption unit.
These revelations, according to security and ANC officials, are among a number of examples submitted to the NPA by Zuma’s legal team.
Zuma’s lawyers first made their submission in writing, before an oral presentation a fortnight ago.
It was during the oral presentation — held away from the NPA offices — that they played recordings of McCarthy’s conversations with Mbeki and with director-general in the Presidency the Rev Frank Chikane, presidency chief operating officer Trevor Fowler, Ngcuka, Mabandla and businessman Mzi Khumalo. Government officials believe some of the conversations were fabricated.
Hofmeyr listened to the tapes and took notes.
McCarthy’s cellphone was bugged by the police’s Crime Intelligence Unit and the National Intelligence Agency.
Permission to intercept McCarthy’s phone calls was granted by a High Court judge after the police presented an affidavit alleging McCarthy was involved in criminal activity.The Sunday Times has found no evidence of a criminal investigation into McCarthy and could not establish the name of the judge who granted permission to probe McCarthy.
The Sunday Times has established that Zuma’s representations contain top secret information obtained by the presidential task team appointed to probe the Scorpions over the Browse Mole Report.
Browse Mole was a Scorpions document drawn up in 2006 under McCarthy’s supervision; it suggested Angola and Libya were funding Zuma and that some of his supporters were plotting to overthrow Mbeki.
The task team, which submitted its report to the National Security Council, is believed to have unearthed damning information about how the Scorpions unit involved itself in ANC politics ahead of the Polokwane Conference.
NIA spokesman Lorna Daniels declined to comment.
The Sunday Times has it on good authority that Ngcuka has requested to listen to the tapes.
McCarthy has made a similar request.
The Sunday Times understands that the tapes have not been put before all the people alleged to have been communicating with McCarthy.
The NPA has sent questions in writing to McCarthy, who wrote back saying it was irregular to respond to questions about tapes that he had not listened to. He said the NPA’s behaviour amounted to an ambush.
Mbeki and Mabandla could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.
Ngcuka declined to comment on the matter but in a statement to The Times last week he denied allegations that he manipulated the NPA or used it as a tool to frustrate Zuma’s ambition to become president.
He also said it was a matter of grave concern that in a democratic state surveillance by a state agency could fall into the possession of the lawyers of a person accused in a criminal trial.
( Moipone Malefane and Wisani Wa Ka Ngobeni, Sunday Times, )6/04/09 )
2 comments:
Welcome to Africa! Leaders are about to get away with 'murder'... When are things going to change? Maria Helena
Another stab in the image of Africa!
Because this case has been thrown out of court, the judicial system has been compromised and is suspected of serving political interests. Guilty or innocent, only the court should decide.
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