ANC leader Jacob Zuma's legal team is in possession of phone conversations allegedly tapped by state intelligence agencies between former president Thabo Mbeki and a former Scorpions boss.

"I have been advised - and believe - that monitoring and interception of telephone conversations has been conducted by a state agency," said former National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Bulelani Ngcuka.

"I have also been informed that the lawyers of Mr Jacob Zuma have such recordings in their possession."

Meanwhile, Business Day, citing some of the people who were monitored, said the conversations recorded included several prominent players in the Zuma saga which involves graft charges related to a multi-billion dollar government arms deal plagued by corruption claims.

The phone conversations are between Mbeki, who was axed from office in 2008 by a pro-Zuma ANC national executive committee, and former Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy.

Others whose conversations were recorded included Ngcuka and businessmen Saki Macozoma and Mzi Khumalo.

Ngcuka said: "If it is suggested - as I believe that it is - that I was involved in any conversations, the objective of which was to manipulate the National Prosecuting Authority or use it as a tool to frustrate Zuma's ambition to occupy the highest office in the land by prosecuting him, I am confident that, if any authentic record of my conversations with whomsoever is produced, no evidence would be found that would implicate me in such a conspiracy."

The content of the tapes is not known but that any conversation between Mbeki and McCarthy could again raise questions about claims of interference in the Zuma case.

The calls were reported to have been tapped just before and after the African National Congress' Polokwane conference in December 2007 when Zuma was elected the new leader of the ruling party after a closely contested race with Mbeki.

Ngcuka said the interception and monitoring *1 and the possession of such material by private individuals was illegal.

"It is a matter of grave concern that in a democratic state - which has an entrenched Bill of Rights that safeguards the right of the citizen to privacy - you could have surveillance by a state agency and the product of that surveillance be made available to the lawyers of an accused person in a criminal trial," said Ngcuka.

Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley, could not be reached for comment.

The news came amid rumours that the NPA had been presented with new evidence by Zuma's lawyers that might see fraud and corruption charges dropped against him, clearing the way for him to become South Africa's next president without the charges hanging over his head. - Sapa

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With acknowledgements to Sapa and Cape Times.