Publication: Cape Argus Issued: Date: 2009-11-10 Reporter:

'Someone at the NIA broke the law'

 

Publication 

Cape Argus
Date

2009-11-10

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za


Opposition party members of the joint standing committee on intelligence (JSCI) say they are to call immediately for the report into the Zuma "spy tapes" to come before their committee.

Theo Coetzee, DA member of the committee, said on Monday: "For sure I'm going to call for the report to tabled before the JSCI."

COPE's member would also call for the report, party spokesperson Phillip Dexter said.

"We want to know how that (intelligence) information (was passed on). We want the report to be released as soon as possible," Dexter said.

The report by the Inspector-General of Intelligence, Zolile Ngcakani, tasked with overseeing the intelligence services, has been completed but remains under wraps.

It examines how the secret recordings by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) of intercepted conversations between former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy and former NPA chief Bulelani Ngcuka got into the hands of President Jacob Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley.

The JSCI chairperson, Cecil Burgess, has said he is not sure whether he will call for the spy tape report as there are "certain things we may not be entitled to see *1".

Laurie Nathan, research fellow at UCT and one of the commissioners who reviewed the intelligence legislation last year, said the Inspector General's Office was accountable to the JSCI and the report must go before the committee.

"Once they've had a chance to consider it, it ought to be made public," he said.

"The inspector general, like the Public Protector, is also accountable to ... the people. He is an ombudsman set up to prevent wrongdoing in the intelligence services."

Nathan said the law was clear that recordings of intercepted conversations, made by the intelligence agencies, could not be given to private citizens.

"Someone at the NIA broke the law," he said.

"The question is simple: who gave the recordings to Hulley?"

Justin Sylvester, political researcher at Idasa, said: "There are a lot of unanswered questions around how those tapes got leaked from the NIA.

"Now the investigation has been completed the report must go before the (JSCI), preferably in an open meeting. It is best for democracy, given the concerns of the intelligence agencies involving themselves in domestic politics and their partisanship.

"If it doesn't, it will be the continuation of a very worrying trend."

University of Cape Town constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos said it was clear that it was a criminal offence to pass on or to receive classified intelligence material.

"One would hope the relevant bodies will press for people to be prosecuted," De Vos said. "Someone must clearly be prosecuted."
 

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This article was originally published on page 5 of The Cape Times on November 10, 2009

With acknowledgements to Cape Argus.


*1       Nonsense, in terms of PAIA if there was unlawfulness and it is in the public interest, it has to be disclosed.

Clearly both conditions are fulfilled.

QED.


*2      There does not have to be full disclose, PAIA provides for severance.

Just the nature of the offence and the perpetrator will suffice.


This criminal act lead to another massive act of unlawful conduct: the Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions withdraw a raft of criminal charges against the president of the realm as well as against two French-owned South African juristic persons which are owned and directed by one of the biggest criminals in the entire world.