White as snow: ANC president Jacob Zuma visited a Shembe Church in Zuurbekom
yesterday.
Picture: Simphiwe Nkwali
They’ve lost their nerve. They’ve lost their stomach. They’ve lost their
appetite’
‘Test evidence in open court’
State will drop charges against ANC president
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.
Mpshe decided to drop the charges after Zuma presented damning evidence which
points to political interference in the case. The evidence includes spy tapes
and statements confirming a political motive behind the controversial Browse
Mole Report, which fingered Zuma in an alleged plot to overthrow former
president Thabo Mbeki.
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.
Related Articles
With acknowledgements to