Bulelani Ngcuka

Zuma recordings could embarrass Scorpions

The Times understands that Jacob Zuma’s legal team has pinned its hopes on potentially embarrassing recordings of Scorpions investigators allegedly discussing the case against the presidential front-runner with former National Prosecuting Authority boss Bulelani Ngcuka.

Several sources familiar with the case ­ and the representations made to the NPA by the ANC president’s legal team ­ said the existence of the tapes which, according to one insider, could “embarrass everyone”, was the main reason prosecuting chief Mokotedi Mpshe was now seriously considering dropping the case.

Zuma is due to appear in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg in August on charges including corruption, fraud and racketeering.

The insider said if Zuma’s legal team decided to submit the tapes as part of the evidence in his high court application for a permanent stay of prosecution “all kinds of things” that happened during the investigation “could be brought out in the open”.

He said that in the tapes some of the investigators in charge of the case sound “irresponsible” in the manner in which they talk about the case.

Former judge Willem Heath, who has been providing legal advice to the ANC in its bid to declare Zuma’s prosecution invalid, told The Times earlier this week that in Zuma’s representations “reference could have been made to certain people, which might be embarrassing to those individuals”.

Another source close to the case said yesterday that Zuma’s legal team has “evidence” that Ngcuka ­ whom Zuma believes was among those who conspired to block his political ambitions ­ continued to communicate with the Scorpions about the case long after he resigned from the NPA in 2004.

Should the NPA press ahead with Zuma’s prosecution, this “evidence” would be used to prove that there was political interference in the case.

An NPA official, who requested anonymity, admitted: “There is evidence against some of our members. But I don’t have the finer details.”

When The Times put the allegations to Ngcuka yesterday, he refused to comment.

With the former NPA boss’s alleged links to the case, Zuma’s team believes it has more than enough evidence to prove political interference.

Yesterday, NPA spokesman Tlali Tlali would not be drawn on Zuma’s representations to the NPA. “It’s up to those parties that made representations to us whether they go public with their case,” Tlali said.

Another official close to the Zuma case told The Times that it was a “known fact that Ngcuka operates from outside” to direct some aspects of the case.

The Times also understands that communication between some Scorpions senior investigators shed light on how they planned to “f*** up” Zuma.

Yesterday ANC Youth League President Julius Malema slammed Zuma supporter Moe Shaik ­ the brother of Zuma’s former financial adviser Schabir ­ for going public about the NPA’s deliberations on dropping the charges against the ANC president.

Malema said Shaik was helping the “dark forces” within the NPA to prosecute Zuma.

DA leader Helen Zille has written to Mpshe requesting the opportunity to make representations on the Zuma case. She said that if the NPA decided not to prosecute “it would make a mockery of the Constitution”.


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