Publication: Pretoria News Issued: Date: 2005-12-13 Reporter: Zelda Venter Reporter: Reporter:

Hoax E-mail Arrest Challenged

 

Publication 

Pretoria News
Date 2005-12-13

Reporter

Zelda Venter

Web Link

www.pretorianews.co.za

 

A businessman implicated in the so-called hoax e-mail saga that has divided the ANC and claimed the careers of at least two top spies wants his arrest warrant to be set aside.

The IT consultant will today ask the Pretoria High Court to set aside an arrest warrant issued by a magistrate.

Muziwendoda Kunene, of Fourways, was released on R2 000 at the weekend following an urgent application to set the arrest warrant aside. The application was brought against the National Director of Public Prosecutions and the Minister of Safety and Security.

The State agreed that Kunene could be released, provided he hand in his passport and that he appeared in court today. The State indicated it would oppose Kunene's application. Kunene said in an affidavit before Judge Annemarie de Vos at the weekend that he was served with a search and seizure warrant on December 1, which was executed later that day.

The police removed certain documents, computers, disks and cellphones from his home.

“The matter for which I am being investigated and in respect of which the (search and seizure) warrant was issued, I learned from newspaper reports subsequent to the search and seizure at my house ... the matter relates to the widely reported e-mails ... referred to as hoax mail or communication between various politicians.”

Kunene said he had been referred to in newspaper reports as an IT executive linked to the e-mails. On the strength of the search and seizure warrant he was wrongly interrogated, he said. The following day (December 2) he was summoned to appear before Inspector-General Zolile Ngcakani to answer certain questions.

Ngcakani is investigating the origin of the so-called hoax e-mails.

Kunene said in his affidavit that nothing much occurred during this meeting as it was unclear “what assistance was sought from him”.

However, on December 7 at the Johannesburg International Airport, on his way back from Durban, Kunene was arrested.

Kunene said the charge on the warrant was that he had committed the crime of withholding information on December 2; when he had to appear before the Inspector-General.

Kunene said the warrant for his arrest was illegal and that the magistrate who issued it was misled about the nature of the matter or issues covered in the search and seizure warrant.

The magistrate who issued the warrant of arrest was clearly not informed that the provisions of the search and seizure warrant did not authorise his interrogation, he said.

“There can therefore be no violation of the search and seizure warrant on my part, even if I had refused to answer questions.”

Kunene said the warrant for his arrest and his detention was a violation of his basic human rights and must be set aside.

The hoax e-mail saga has already implicated intelligence cyber unit manager Funi Madlala and suspended NIA director-general Billy Masetlha. However, Kunene is the first civilian to face prosecution in connection with the alleged hoax e-mails.

A Sunday newspaper reported two weeks ago that the executive had business links with ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe.

The newspaper also reported that the police and the I-G were investigating the possibility that Motlanthe was party to producing the so-called hoax e-mails, aimed at discrediting senior government and ANC officials in an alleged conspiracy against ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.

Motlanthe has denied knowing the businessman concerned or having any business links as reported. He recently distributed examples of the hoax e-mails at a meeting of the ANC's national executive committee during a heated debate on whether there was a plot against Zuma.

With acknowledgements to Zelda Venter and Pretoria News.