Opinion & Analysis

Karima Brown’s column, How is one ‘cleared’ without being investigated? (July 11), is an honest critique of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Regrettably, it is based on a flawed article in the Sunday Times.

As the NPA spokesperson I did not issue any statement to the Sunday Times on President Thabo Mbeki, I merely responded to the questions they asked me.

Their reporter told me that they were in possession of documents linking Mbeki to a French company that participated in the arms deal and that, according to their information, the documents had originally been obtained by the NPA’s Scorpions unit.

They wanted to know how the documents had ended up in the public domain and whether on their strength there had been any investigation against Mbeki and, if not, why not.

I told them that the documents had been put on the court record during the trial of convicted Durban businessman Schabir Shaik — that’s how they had entered the public domain.

I told the Sunday Times that Mbeki had not been the subject of an investigation by the Scorpions.

I also said the Scorpions had not seen any evidence of wrongdoing by Mbeki and therefore no investigation against him had been warranted.

I was not aware that by answering the questions I was actually doing the honour of “clearing” the president.

Furthermore, I thought it dishonest for the Sunday Times to suggest that I had “confirmed” that the NPA had in its possession documents “implicating” Mbeki.

The notion that the said documents implicated the president was the Sunday Times’s own interpretation, not mine or the NPA’s.

If asked, I could say categorically that Brown is not the subject of any investigation by the Scorpions and that no investigation is warranted.

Would she then stand up and accuse the NPA of “pussyfooting” around journalists?

With acknowledgements to Makhosini Nkosi and Business Day.