26 March 2009

Former president Thabo Mbeki has broken his silence on claims that Jacob Zuma accused him of a political conspiracy and improper involvement in the arms deal in order to persuade his prosecutors to drop the corruption case against him.

Mbeki's office released a statement after media reports on Thursday claimed that tapped phone conversations between Mbeki and then Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy formed part of Zuma's argument that the corruption case against him was politically motivated.

"Former president Mbeki wishes to invite anyone who has such evidence to hand it over to the law enforcement agencies so that legal remedies are sought by any party that believes that it may have been unduly compromised," Mbeki's office said.

"Mr Mbeki has, over the years, disputed these claims and wishes to emphasise that at no stage did he interfere or contemplate interfering in Mr Zuma's case."

Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley, yesterday refused to comment on the "spy phone call" reports, which included a public confirmation by former National Prosecuting Authority head Bulelani Ngcuka that he had been the subject of legally questionable surveillance.

While again stressing that the content of Zuma's submissions to the State were confidential, Hulley would not respond to unsourced reports.

He added he "would also like to say it is a criminal offence for the NPA to leak information", but declined to respond to The Star's queries about whether he was suggesting that the State was responsible for the leaks.

Sources in the Zuma camp have previously blamed a "prosecutor who is trying to mess things up" for reports about the NPA's plans to drop the charges against Zuma.

NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali has also refused to be drawn on the truth of the "spy tape" reports, saying only that it would be "unfortunate" if the source of the reports was "based on speculation".

Ngcuka on Thursday refused to reveal whether he had listened to the alleged "spy tapes", nor would he be drawn on whether he would ask the NPA for an opportunity to listen to his alleged conversations with McCarthy.

Speaking to The Star on Thursday, Ngcuka's attorney, Dumisani Tabata, said he had advised the former national director of public prosecutions not to comment any further on the tapes furore.

He further declined to respond to questions on what possible legal action Ngcuka would take over the alleged recordings.

The "spy tapes" debacle came a day before prosecuting head Mokotedi Mpshe's planned consideration of the secret submissions made by Zuma's lawyers and the ANC to persuade him that he does not have a winnable case against the ruling party's president.

The chairman of the joint standing committee on intelligence, ANC MP Cecil Burgess, said the body would not get involved in ascertaining the circumstances around the recording of conversations between Ngcuka and McCarthy.

The Inspector-General of Intelligence, Zolile Ngcakani, said on Thursday he had not received any complaints about the alleged recordings.

"It is through recent media reports that I have become aware of the alleged monitoring and interception of specific telephonic conversations reported, which is of concern," said Ngcakani.

"These allegations, however, remain unconfirmed and are under consideration."

Meanwhile, businessman Saki Macozoma - whose tapped conversations are also alleged to have been presented to the NPA - has lashed out at South Africa's intelligence services over the alleged "spy tapes".

Macozoma, who recently threw his weight behind COPE, said he had not independently verified that the potentially embarrassing and legally questionable recordings exist, but the matter had not come as a shock to him.

"I would not be surprised. I don't expect much from the people who run this intelligence agency of this country," he said.