Publication: Cape Argus Issued: Date: 2009-04-12 Reporter:

Beware the cloak and dagger, warns Erwin

 

Publication 

Cape Argus
Date

2009-04-12

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za


Former Cabinet minister Alec Erwin has sent an urgent warning to the African National Congress under Jacob Zuma - don't copy the example of former United States president George Bush by relying on government spies to prosecute people.

Use the country's courts instead, he said, when disclosing that he had decided to vote for the breakaway Congress of the People (COPE).

Erwin is worried the country's intelligence services, seeking to find evidence of the plot the Zuma faction believed had been hatched against the ANC president, was "acting in ways where legality and illegality are blurred".

"We are confronted with bizarre emails, Browse Reports and now some taped conversations. Let us beware that we are not moving toward our own Guantanamo Prison where trial by 'intelligence' rather than due process held sway, to the great shame of the United States," he said.

Erwin, who resigned in sympathy with president Thabo Mbeki, said he was going to vote for COPE in protest at the direction being taken by the current ANC leadership, that held the view "what is good for the ANC leadership is good for the country".

"This will lead to dangerous expediency and expediency quickly undermines due process, the rule of law and the constitution state. This is a continuous danger for all democracies. Many have argued that the Bush administration took this path at great cost to the US."

Erwin's views have been echoed by many commentators, alarmed at how audiotapes made by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) landed in the hands of Zuma's lawyers, who then argued Zuma was the victim of a plot by former director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka and head of the Scorpions, Leonard McCarthy.

Transcripts of tape-recorded conversations between McCarthy and Ngcuka, in which the timing of Zuma's 2007 recharging was discussed, were used by acting National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Mokotedi Mpshe to justify the state's withdrawal of all charges against Zuma.

The prosecuting boss last week ended the state's eight-year investigation and prosecution of Zuma on the basis that transcripts of the recordings showed an "abuse of power" on the part of former NPA management.

The DA's Dianne Kohler Barnard on Thursday laid criminal charges against Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley, and NIA deputy head Arthur Fraser. The charges relate to the possession and distribution of allegedly illegal tape recordings.

A national newspaper had quoted three independent sources identifying Fraser as the one who had passed tapes on to Zuma's legal team. Hulley has denied it was Fraser who gave him the secret recordings that helped set his client free, though he declines to say who did.

The Inspector General of Intelligence, Zolile Ngcakani, plans to question intelligence chiefs about the tapes.

Zuma ally and SACP boss Blade Nzimande, in a statement, accused the media of engaging in the diversionary tactic of "focusing on how information may have gotten into the hands of Zuma's lawyers... That's not the issue. The issue is that organs of state have been abused."

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, speaking at a SACP rally in Durban on Sunday, said people were trying to persecute an innocent man (Zuma). "Who gave Zuma's lawyers the tapes is not important. Why is that more important than the truth?"

Meanwhile, Karyn Maughan reports that lead Zuma prosecutor, advocate Billy Downer, has said Zuma's prosecution was "absolutely not" born out of a political vendetta.

Downer said that Ngcuka and McCarthy were "very surprised" when evidence of graft first surfaced against the ANC president.

When Mpshe announced his decision to withdraw charges against Zuma, he acknowledged that Downer and his team had disagreed and had wanted a judge to decide on whether the case - which the NPA had described as strong - was too compromised to continue.

Downer has refused to be drawn on the basis for his opposition to Mpshe's decision, but he denied that there was "any basis" to suggest that Zuma had been targeted for an unwarranted prosecution by the NPA. "Nothing could be further from the truth," he said.

Downer described how the evidence of payments between Zuma's financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, and the then deputy president emerged out of a "very tiny aspect" of the NPA's arms deal enquiry *1.

"Not in their wildest dreams did they (Ngcuka and McCarthy) ever believe anything would come out of it… all Bulelani wanted to do was get behind the allegations of arms deal corruption being made by (ID leader) Patricia de Lille."

Downer became involved in the arms deal inquiry in 2001, when he was asked to probe a potential conflict of interest between Chippy Shaik, the government's principal buyer in the arms deal, and his brother Schabir - who had a stake in one of the arms sellers. Investigations revealed that Shaik was making payments to Zuma.

Asked about his feelings towards McCarthy and Ngcuka, whose conversations ostensibly cost the state the chance to put Zuma on trial, Downer said: "I simply don't know".

If the transcripts accurately reflected what the two men said to each other, and were a reflection of irregular interference in the Zuma case, "then of course I'm devastated and disappointed. We all are *2," said Downer.

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With acknowledgements to Cape Argus.
 

*1       As it transpired this was not such a tiny aspect.

It was the proverbial tip of the iceberg, 5% observable from the surface and 95% observable only with sub-surface investigation.

My written complaint in July 2000 about the "vested interests" of Chippy Shaik led to a confirmation of "conflicts of interest", formally reported, but not acted upon in any way (Trophy No. 1).

This then lead to a very successful prosecution of Schabir Shaik (Trophy No. 2).

And also the indictment of Thomson-CSF (Pty) Ltd (Trophy No. 3).

Then Imbongolo Stooges No. 1 and No. 2, Dr Peneull Maduna and Bulelani Ngcuka let off my  Trophy No. 3.

My complain then led to the indictment of Jacob Zuma (Trophy No. 4) and The Two Thints (Trophy No. 5).

Then Imbongolo Stooges No. 2 and No. 3, Bulelani Ngcuka and Leonard McCarthy, ably abetted by Imbongolo Stooges No. 5 and No. 6 Mokotedi Mpshe and Willie Hofmeyr let off my  Trophies No. 4 and 5.

And my complaint also led to the outing of Thabo Mbeki as co-conspirator of Thomson-CSF; only that the NPA refuses to investigate him while its head Mokotedi Mpshe dances the most rehearsed and fanciful of egg dances around his name. But the Strategy of the Elephants caused Trophy No. 4 to create Trophy No. 5.

Hopefully Imbongolo Stooge Nos 4, 5 and 6 will soon transmogrify Imbongolo Stooges Nos 2 and 3 into becoming Trophy No. 6 and Trophy No. 7.

A small cherry on the top would be if Deputy Head of the NIA Stooge No. 7 Arthur Fraser becomes Trophy No. 8.

Along the wayside also fell poor old SSI Ivor Powell, who was all the time just earning his keep as senior special investigator at R40 000 per month.

Also as collateral damage, but trophies nevertheless, were Their Royal Lownesses Shauket Allie Fakie CA(SA) and Selby Allan Baqwa SC who became Stooges No. 3 and 4 and Trophies No. 9 and Trophy No. 10.

Other than reporting the initial conflict of interest I also at great expense outed Stooges 2, 3 and 4, Ngcuka, Fakie and Baqwa, as contriving the most pathetic of end products in the form of the Arms Deal Joint Investigation Report. They are free, but at their own instances, their reputations are shattered forever.

Also whose own conduct shattered their reputations forever are Chief of the SA Navy VAdm Robert Claude Simpson-Anderson and Project Director RAdm(JG) Jonathan Edwin Gold Kamerman (Trophies No. 11 and Trophy No. 12), both of whom lied under oath at Stooge No. 4's public hearings into the Arms Deal in order to protect Trophies Nos 1 and 3.

Not a bad.haul for one letter to the Auditor-General concerning a very tiny aspect and one organogram, nearly every link of which has proved to be both true and/or relevant.



*2      Of course this is irregular interference in the Zuma case, of course were are all devastated and disappointed (some more so than others).

But this is not irregular interference in the Zuma prosecution.

This is not irregular interference in the prosecution of The Two Thints.

The decision to re-prosecute Zuma and The Two Thints was made by the Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Mokotedi Mpshe on the recommendation of Investigating Director of the Directorate of Special Operations, Thanda Mngwengwe.

It was based on the soundest of cases with the soundest of court-proven documentary evidence and court-tested oral evidence, including that of an eye-witness to one of the most incriminating instances of criminal conduct, the typing of the executive statement called the Encrypted Fax .

The use of McCarthy's slip is a giant act of opportunism by the National Prosecuting Authority.

The NPA itself has proven that its first national director was a stooge of the then president.

The Government has proven that the NPA's second national director was evicted from his post when he refused to be a stooge of both the then president and his successor.

Is it not an unfair question to not ask whether the NPA itself has not proven that its third national director is not a stooge of the current president and his successor?

Oh, the might of the double negative elimination; or is it double negation introduction, or what? Or not?

Meanwhile back at the farm, Alec Erwin is one of the biggest donkeys of the lot. In fact he's Trophy No. 13.