Publication: Sunday Independent Issued: Date: 2005-10-23 Reporter: Moshoeshoe Monare Reporter:

Zuma's Spies Out in the Cold in ANC Succession Battle

 

Publication 

Sunday Independent
Date

2005-10-23

Reporter

 Moshoeshoe Monare

Web link

 

Suspensions are a sign of changing loyalties and proof that the struggle in the party has bled into state organs

The former commander of the South African National Defence Force, Siphiwe Nyanda, toyi-toyi-ed mockingly in front of the now suspended domestic intelligence boss, Billy Masetlha, and Mpumalanga premier Thabang Makwetla, just minutes after President Thabo Mbeki was humiliated during the ANC's national general council this year.

He apparently danced to and sang an Umkhonto weSizwe chant, demonstrating to Mbeki die-hard Makwetla and to the superspy that the people's voice had prevailed.

This after delegates had forced the council meeting in Pretoria in July to support former deputy president Jacob Zuma, thus allowing him to resume his active duties in the ANC.

Last week Nyanda was seen in Durban pledging solidarity with his former mentor, Zuma, who was appearing before a magistrate in his sensational corruption case.

With this week's suspension of Masetlha as head of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), one may wonder why he wasn't also dancing on that day in July.

But this anecdote shows that in the face of conflict and escalating confrontation, loyalty and allegiance shift dramatically, and the effect on the stability of South Africa's security has been unnerving.

It is no coincidence Masetlha has to take the fall. His discomfort with the Scorpions indicates that he knew how the battle to control the ANC had spilled over into state institutions.

The Scorpions are close to Mbeki, with some of its members having links to the opposition Democratic Alliance, which on Friday piously cautioned against the abuse of state resources for political objectives.

Security institutions are regarded as political launching pads, information held in government trust is used as a weapon and civil servants are now active in a battle without rules.

It was no accident that Masetlha, in his submission to the Khampepe commission's probe into the future of the Scorpions, insisted that some Scorpions agents were a security threat and should be vetted by his agency. He has their files and knows about their involvement in the succession crusade in the ANC.

E-mail communications between senior state and ANC officials - on how they will rid the ruling party of "stumbling blocks" in the presidential succession fracas - have been unlawfully intercepted by NIA agents.

If they are exposed, the heads of senior government, ruling party and opposition executives may roll, with a devastating effect on South Africa's international standing.

The e-mail interceptions implicate senior civil servants and members of the executive who are sympathetic to Mbeki. They appear to have abused their office to emerge superior in the current political power play, but because this group is in a privileged position and has the right connections, their suspensions are unlikely unless the ANC tackles them outside government.

Businessman and ANC executive member Saki Macozoma, who was unlawfully placed under surveillance by the NIA, is part of an extra-government lobby group that plots and directs the succession in the ANC.

Intelligence agents sympathetic to Zuma employed illegal means to gather information on this circle; hence the panic and the intervention of the executive this week in the row.

It shouts hypocrisy that the Zuma camp - which has cried foul over abuse of state resources - is equally engaged in the covert information warfare for his survival.

It is not surprising that Zuma - shortly after he was charged, and again last week in Durban and in his address to Cosatu's central committee a day before he was raided - threatened to reveal all at the right time.

The balance of forces in the ANC power struggle is even, with the Mbeki and Zuma camps having different edges.

Zuma, former intelligence head of the ANC, has the advantage of the allegiance of former combatants and operatives who are still in government security institutions; Mbeki's centre of power in waging this war is political control of these institutions and his capacity to launch pre-emptive strikes and purges to paralyse his opponents.

The suspension of Masetlha and his two most senior NIA officials, Gibson Njenje and Bob Mhlanga, the so-called early retirement of Nyanda, and the removal of Lindiwe Sisulu, as intelligence minister, are all examples of the casualties littering the way.

Jackie Selebi, the national police commissioner, and his boss, Charles Nqakula, the safety and security minister, are also under intense scrutiny in case they are seen to cross the loyalty line.

Nqakula and Selebi, by virtue of their office, authorised the back-up of VIP Protection Unit police to prevent armed Scorpions members and their contracted specialists from raiding Zuma's residence in Forest Town, Johannesburg, culminating in an ugly stand-off.

Masetlha later summoned the National Prosecuting Authority head, Vusi Pikoli, to terminate the contracts of undesirable elements in the Scorpions.

As long as he is in office, Mbeki would want to purge his administration of people who - no matter how loyal - show the slightest sign of sympathy for his opponent.

Ronnie Kasrils, the intelligence minister, alluded to this on Friday when he said he had convened an urgent meeting of all intelligence chiefs, underlining the intelligence community's role as non-partisan, and stressing that government and opposition groups should not misuse the services for political ends.

Zuma's survival, apart from the power of the masses in the ANC, is in the hands of hooded senior state officials who consult him at night about what his enemies in the organisation are thinking and planning.

Judging by Mbeki's pre-emptive strikes, Zuma will be pushed to tell all, and it will be up to the ANC to act as it did with the Group of Eight in exile, when the party was forced to expel its senior leaders.

The latest development could dominate next month's ANC national executive committee meeting, where declarations of war and the drawing of battle lines may become clear.

Mbeki has an advantage in Zuma's corruption case. While not necessarily being trumped up, it could help to defeat his opponent without abusing state institutions.

It is clear, though, that elements on both sides are abusing state resources, misusing office and transferring the battlefield to the government terrain, thus threatening the stability of the country and weakening security.

The battle for the ANC and the presidency is an ugly one, and it needs adroit leadership and a self-effacing persona reminiscent of Oliver Tambo to hold the centre in the face of immense challenges.

That things are falling apart in the ANC, raising the prospect of anarchy in South Africa, reminds one of WB Yeats's line in The Second Coming: "Surely some revelation is at hand".

With acknowledgements to Moshoeshoe Monare and the Sunday Independent.