Rumour mongers must be made to pay, says justice minister

Justice Minister Penuell Maduna said yesterday the Hefer commission had reaffirmed the integrity of the justice department after the claim that Scorpions boss Bulelani Ngcuka was a spy for the apartheid government collapsed.

The accusation that Ngcuka may have been an apartheid spy fell apart over the past two weeks as his chief accusers, Mo Shaik and Mac Maharaj, failed to provide convincing evidence to the commission.

Although the inquiry continues and Judge Joos Hefer has not yet compiled his findings, Maduna said National Director of Public Prosecutions Ngcuka should seek damages in court from "rumour mongers" that had defamed him.

In an interview, Maduna said the commission confirmed what he knew all along: that the charge against Ngcuka was baseless.

"I never had any reason to suspect that the allegations were true. But the commission was the only way to get the whole thing out," he said. Maduna said he first became aware of the rumour in 2001, after which he approached Shaik and asked the former African National Congress (ANC) intelligence operative to provide him with details of the spy allegations.

Shaik told the commission that while Maduna had indeed approached him, he did not answer Maduna as he did not trust the justice minister's motives.

"But I never had any evil motives," Maduna said yesterday.

Now that the dust has begun to clear and it appears unlikely that any further evidence against Ngcuka will emerge, Maduna said the Scorpions boss should consider taking legal action against Shaik. "Rumour mongers must be made to pay. If I was (Ngcuka), I would investigate the possibility of suing Shaik because he has been defamed," he said.

He said that these "rumour mongers" who have no basis for their allegations had to be brought to book, irrespective of whether they were being used by any other party to punt a specific agenda.

Maduna himself is taking legal action against Independent Democrats leader Patricia De Lille, who has claimed in the past that Maduna was a spy.

Despite Maduna's earlier requests that De Lille provide her evidence, she did not do so and Maduna has now decided to take legal action.

"She left me with no alternative but to sue her. She was given an opportunity to go to the Hefer commission, but she never did," he said.

De Lille had claimed that the terms of reference for the Hefer inquiry did not extend to cover the Maduna allegations.

The rather public rift in the ANC sparked by Ngcuka's investigation of Deputy President Jacob Zuma has already spawned its victims.

Amid this mess, Maduna had indicated he will not stand for cabinet next year, although Ngcuka is still expected to serve out the remainder of his term as the head of the prosecutions directorate.

With acknowledgements to Rob Rose and Business Day.