Wally Mbhele
President Nelson Mandela this week threw his weight behind the theory that Robert McBride was set up in Mozambique by security force elements keen to give credibility to the discredited “Meiring” coup report.
At a briefing for opposition leaders, Mandela said he had considered the possibility that McBride’s arrest was orchestrated to bolster the controversial intelligence document that listed the diplomat as one of several coup plotters.
Mandela discussed the report on Tuesday with opposition politicians after South African National Defence Force (SANDF) chief Georg Meiring, who handed the report to the president, announced his resignation. The report was dismissed as a fabrication by a commission of inquiry chaired by Chief Justice Ismail Mahomed.
It is understood Mandela told the confidential briefing that when he first learned of McBride’s arrest he felt it backed up the report which he had initially dismissed as fantasy. It was only after the shock of McBride’s arrest had dissipated that he considered the possibility the diplomat had been framed.
Mandela’s remarks support several weeks of reporting by the Mail & Guardian that McBride’s arrest in Mozambique was arranged by elements within South African military intelligence (MI) with the assistance of the Mozambican security forces. There are strong suspicions that some old guard security operatives were anxious McBride, who was investigating the recent spate of highway heists, was close to proving their links with the robberies.
Senior government sources believe the death of the MI report could speed up McBride’s release. It is understood the Mahomed commission “has said nothing about McBride except to clear him of the plot to overthrow the government”.
Mandela spent much of the briefing heaping praise on Meiring, with whom he is believed to have had a close working relationship. He was at pains to emphasise Meiring’s integrity and said he had handled many sensitive issues with the army chief. Mandela stressed that he had not encouraged Meiring to resign, but that he felt Meiring’s resignation was the only honourable thing to do in view of the Mahomed commission’s recommendations.
It is understood Mandela indicated to the meeting that Meiring’s stepping down will restore trust between the government and those who have been named in the MI report. The report’s leak to the press appears to have been the source of the breakdown of trust between Mandela and Meiring, according to those who attended the meeting.
He told the meeting that when he first read the MI report, he felt it was flawed as the alleged coup plot only involved “black soldiers” who were part of the liberation struggle.
It has also emerged that a Mozambican judge, who was assigned to determine whether or not the police should continue with the investigation after interviewing McBride, has made a judicial order for the arrest of Mozambican gun runner, Alex Mamba, in whose flat a trap for McBride’s arrest was laid. It is understood that he has also ordered the questioning of a number of Mozambican policemen suspected to have connived in laying a trap.
Government sources concede that McBride’s arrest took them by surprise. They now however question the set of characters involved in the MI report and the McBride arrest.
They say it is no coincidence that the man behind the manufacturing of the MI report, Vusi Mbatha, is the same man who was allegedly used to set up McBride.
At least one South African policeman involved in the McBride investigation has also been named as a possible accomplice in the set-up.
Meanwhile, Jackie Cilliers of the Institute for Security Studies said Meiring’s “rapid stepping down is an honourable thing to do as it will restore trust between the national defence force and the president. Given the fact that both Modise and [deputy defence minister] Ronnie Kasrils have expressed concern about the transformation of the SANDF, the latest development will re-establish trust between the defence force command structures and the president. It also places the transformation of the SANDF squarely back on track.”
The National Party described this week’s events as a national crisis and praised Mandela for playing his cards open with the opposition parties. The party’s representative at the opposition briefing, Sheila Camerer, singled out Mandela’s emphasis on Meiring’s integrity.