/ 5 August 2010

Hawks say case against reporter going ahead

The case against Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi Wa Afrika will go ahead, Hawks spokesperson Musa Zondi said on Thursday.

“… The prosecutors had earlier expressed that they did not see a case. Following further engagement with ourselves they have now decided to re-institute those charges as they are,” he told the South African Press Association.

The decision to proceed with the case was taken on Thursday afternoon. Sunday Times lawyer Eric van den Berg earlier said the prosecutors had decided there was no case against the journalist.

Van den Berg could not immediately be reached for comment.

Zondi said Wa Afrika was due to appear in court on Friday on charges of fraud and defeating the ends of justice.

Earlier, TimesLive quoted a prosecutor, a Mr Erwee, as saying he had declined to prosecute Wa Afrika “on the grounds that he has no case to answer”.

Reports suggested the journalist’s arrest could be related to his being in possession of a fraudulent resignation letter by Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza.

“I’m not sure if the charges were him being in possession [of the letter] or him being the author,” Van den Berg said earlier.

Wa Afrika was arrested outside the Sunday Times office on Wednesday by members of the Hawks special police unit.

‘Incorrect, misleading’ article
He was the author of a report critical of national police chief General Bheki Cele which was published on Sunday.

At a briefing convened to clarify the “incorrect and worse, misleading” article, Cele told reporters in Pretoria on Tuesday he did not sign a R500-million lease agreement for an 18-storey building in the capital city, but only a “needs assessment”.

If he had signed the lease, to run over 20 years, it would have meant he had not followed correct tender procedures.

Sunday Times editor Ray Hartley said the paper had a copy of the signed lease in its possession.

Wa Afrika was arrested a day after Cele called him a “very shady journalist”, and when asked if he would take action against the reporter, he replied: “Time will tell”.

The South African Institute of Race Relations on Thursday questioned the motive behind the arrest.

“The institute suspects that this document [the resignation letter] is not the actual motivation for the arrest, but that the arrest is an effort by the police and the government to intimidate journalists in South Africa,” the institute said in a statement.

The South African Human Rights Commission expressed concern about the “alleged high-handed manner” in which Wa Afrika was arrested.

“While the commission recognises the right and duty of the police to arrest anybody they genuinely suspect of having committed a crime, it however calls on the police to act without undue force in the execution of their duties.

“The commission believes that no person must be subjected to the treatment that the Hawks are alleged to have meted out on Mr Wa Afrika,” it said in a statement.

Several opposition parties also criticised the way the arrest was handled. – Sapa