Ngcuka guns for IFP hardliners

As the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal prepare for political marriage, the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, is pursuing a two-pronged investigation aimed at purging the IFP of rogue elements.

On one side investigators are seeking to pursue leads from this week’s raid of the largest arms cache yet unearthed in South Africa. Sources say investigators are poised to pounce on at least two other caches shortly.

Ngcuka’s economic offences unit has also launched a full-scale investigation into money-laundering and other financial improprieties — the proceeds of which could be being used to fund paramilitary activity in the province — in the IFP-controlled KwaZulu-Natal government. A top official close to the investigation confirmed this week that the weapons raid was part of a “two-pronged” strategy.

The aim of Ngcuka’s intervention is to neutralise warlords and agents linked to third force activities which have plagued the province since the mid-1980s. This complements the ANC’s efforts to forge closer ties with its former enemy in pursuit of peace in the troubled province. The ANC is expected to offer a deputy presidency to IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi as a move aimed at cementing relations between the two parties after the June 2 elections.

But the continued presence of warlords, rogue elements and agents of the former regime in the ranks of the IFP has thus far bedevilled progress towards the rapprochement and left provincial peace initiatives in tatters as political violence increases ahead of the poll – as well as created a new urgency in purging the IFP of renegade warlords. Ngcuka’s efforts take place, however, amid indications that a wider conspiracy could be unfolding in the province as details come to light of ongoing paramilitary training and arming of cadres connected to the IFP in KwaZulu-Natal.

The Mail & Guardian has learned that IFP strongman Philip Powell has been centrally linked to clandestine activity which has been building up ahead of the elections. Violence monitors and intelligence agencies operating in KwaZulu-Natal have confirmed that at least four paramilitary training camps have been held since the beginning of the year.

These camps appear to have taken a notably different form from earlier paramilitary training camps, such as the notorious Mlaba camp in 1993 and 1994. Where Mlaba saw 5 000 IFP loyalists “graduate” after six months, the current exercise is believed to be focused on smaller groups of between 15 and 40 trainees and to involve the development of more specialised skills.

Trainees apparently include members of the group of 200 IFP loyalists sent to the Caprivi Strip under South African Defence Force auspices in the 1980s. The Caprivi trainees subsequently emerged as the core grouping in the IFP’s paramilitary capability ahead of the 1994 elections.

Also named — along with other IFP members with backgrounds in the apartheid regime’s security forces and intelligence agencies — as having been involved in the training of IFP paramilitaries is the party’s Midlands militant, David Ntombela.

Earlier this year the M&G exposed Ntombela as having been an agent of the old regime’s security police. Intelligence reports show small groups of IFP loyalists, organised in cells of between 10 and 12 members, are being equipped with arms in the run-up to elections. Shadowy white rightwingers have been identified as being involved in arming and training the cells.

The arms cache unearthed this week near Vryheid represents only a fraction of the illegal armaments yet to be accounted for by Powell. Thousands of AK-47s, other assault rifles, shotguns as well as assorted submachine guns and handguns which can be traced to Powell have not yet been recovered – enough to wage war in the already unstable province.

The M&G is in possession of information linking Powell to many times the haul discovered on Wednesday, including:

• the remainder of about 60 tons of armaments supplied by former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock in 1992;
• an assortment of shotguns, G3, R-1 and R-4 assault rifles, as well as handguns received from South African Police stores in 1993;
• quantities of weapons, including AK-47s, Makarov pistols, Uzis, Scorpion machine pistols and bazookas, which, according to intelligence reports, Powell subsequently procured via illegal arms dealers.

Intelligence sources told the M&G it is believed the remainder of the weapons were buried near a game reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Whether the weapons were subsequently distributed remains unknown. In the fraud investigation, Ngcuka has ordered his serious economic offences directorate to probe long-standing claims of widespread financial impropriety in the province – impropriety that has been linked to senior officials in the IFP anxious to turn the province into an independent kingdom.

One of the most intriguing aspects of this investigation is the case of Durban businessman Sateesh Isseri, who two years ago blew the whistle on a sophisticated scheme to transfer provincial government funds to party coffers by over-invoicing “loyal business”.

The serious economic offences directorate has confirmed it is investigating Isseri’s case — and others — along with two other state institutions. They will continue an investigation started by provincial police two years ago. Isseri was put on the witness protection programme in August 1997 after distilling his allegations into a lengthy statement, details of which were published in the M&G last year.

The statement explained how he had struck a deal with provincial government officials to supply medical equipment, but had then become embroiled in a scheme in which he was overpaid for his services and instructed to distribute the extra money to various officials.

Isseri described several conversations with heavyweight IFP officials who discussed their plans to make the province an independent kingdom, and how they needed “loyal businessmen” to achieve their goals. He also described how he and other businessmen were flown to a paramilitary training camp where he claimed to have seen army and police vehicles, as well as several vans belonging to Khulani-Springbok patrols.

Isseri launched a civil suit against the provincial government for money he claimed was owed to him in terms of the original contract he had signed to supply medical equipment. The province offered an extraordinary defence which effectively supported Isseri’s claims of impropriety.

The defence was that the officials with whom Isseri had dealt, including the province’s expenditure head, had been involved in a fraudulent conspiracy. That case is still pending. Isseri has since accused the Durban police of trying to frame him on other charges, and is currently out on bail after appearing in a Durban court last month.

Ngcuka’s serious economic offences directorate officially endorsed Isseri’s application for bail, at the same time it decided to launch its full-scale probe.