The New National Party has come out with guns blazing against the proposed ministerial committee to investigate the allegation that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid-era spy.
NNP MP Carol Johnson said her party could not support the establishment of such a committee.
”The question of whether or not Ngcuka was an alleged apartheid spy is not the issue here. If the persons making these allegations against him were aware of the fact, as they now claim, why did they not make it known at the time when Ncguka was appointed? Surely, they should have voiced their concerns and objections earlier.”
”What is the relevance of a ministerial committee, asks the NNP. An investigation into Ngcuka detracts from the real issue. The real issue is the investigation into the arms deal and the involvement of other individuals in the arms deal.”
The announcement of the committee probe was made by Minister of Justice Penuell Maduna on Thursday. He said he would invoke provisions of the National Prosecutions Authority Act to investigate the claims.
This follows a City Press report that the African National Congress, while still in exile, investigated Ngcuka, who later became an ANC MP, in the late 1980s to establish whether he was an apartheid spy.
Former transport minister Mac Maharaj confirmed the allegation during a SABC interview. He said he had seen the intelligence report himself.
Johnson said on Friday: ”It’s a matter of principle. Similar accusations of being apartheid-era spies have, in the past, been made against other ANC individuals — and then ministerial committees were not established to investigate them. The allegations were simply brushed off.
”A ministerial committee now will create a dangerous precedent. It will mean that, should similar allegations be brought against ANC members in government positions in future, the government will not be able to justify why such individuals have not and are not also being investigated. We cannot allow that unfounded allegations are continuously made against persons of integrity.” — I-Net Bridge