Some Spies More Equal Than Others [Mail and Guardian, 2003-09-19]

Publication	Mail and Guardian, Letters
Date	2003-09-19
Reporter	Mphutlane Wa Bofelo George Gaitanelis

Defending the African National Congress's alliance with the New National Party, the ANC's Vusi Mahanye asserts: "We are working with the NNP because South Africa belongs to all those who live in it, black and white."

Yet the spin-doctors of the ANC are hounding National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka for allegedly having been a spy of the National Party's apartheid regime!

"I work with him and I hear he is a spy," says Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna. Whose spy, Mr Minister? How can you reconcile with a party and still treat its alleged spies as pariahs?

Did not the Sunset Clause ensure job security in the new South Africa for the bureaucrats who worked for the former apartheid regime, and aren't former top personnel and officers of the South African Defence Force still occupying important positions in the military?

Was it not the ANC that in 1994 embraced parties and people who participated in the Tricameral Parliament and Bantustan politics?

Today the ANC reminds Bantu Holomisa that he was a Bantustan leader every time he criticises its policies. Yet Minister of Public Works Stella Sigcau and Mpumalanga Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu are also former Bantustan puppets and are in the ANC government.

Are some spies and puppets of the apartheid regime more equal than others, or do people become spies and puppets only when it suits the political agenda of the ANC?

People will be asking questions about the ministerial committee appointed to probe allegations that Bulelani Ngcuka is a spy.

Will the committee make the complete list of spies and counter-spies available, opening the Pandora's box completely?

Will they create evidence about Ngcuka to show that he is a spy even if he was not?

What if Ngcuka was a double agent, pretending to be a spy while actually serving as a freedom fighter?

Would it not be better to appoint a parliamentary committee instead of a committee of ANC ministers to probe the spy allegations against Ngcuka?

One is inclined to conclude that the committee is designed to draw attention away from the real issue, which is the corrupt involvement of leading politicians in the arms deal.