Stefaans Brmmer
President Thabo Mbeki and a shadowy African National Congress official have been linked to the bizarre appointment of a private investigator to probe government corruption. The appointment backfired this week when details emerged of the investigator’s exorbitant fee, apparent lack of success and crooked past.
The saga of the private investigator, Kevin Trytsman, suggests the existence of an unofficial intelligence network reporting to Albert Luthuli House in Johannesburg, the national headquarters of the ANC. The “deployment” of such operatives to government, as happened in Trytsman’s case, undermines the distinction between party and state as well as the constitutional role of the state’s own security machinery.
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa made the embarrassing admission to Parliament on Monday that his department paid Trytsman R558E000 to probe corruption in the allocation of sought-after fishing quotas – but that Trytsman found none. Later, Moosa’s department told the Mail & Guardian that Trytsman’s contract was terminated when it emerged he had “direct interests in the fishing industry” – a serious conflict of interest.
Police records show a string of fraud, theft and assault charges have been investigated against Trytsman over the years. He was handed a seven-year sentence after being arrested with an arms stockpile in 1989, but avoided serving time until 1997, when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission granted him amnesty as the arms had been stored “for the ANC”. Trytsman was not only friends with ANC cadres: at the time of his arrest, he had strong ties with apartheid hitman Ferdi Barnard.
Trytsman was contracted in November, without tender, by Moosa’s deputy, Rejoice Mabudafhasi. But the deputy minister, who handles the fisheries portfolio, had little choice: the “order” to hire Trytsman came from Tito Maleka, an enigmatic but powerful party official at Luthuli House.
Maleka – often described as the “security head” at Luthuli House – appears to co- ordinate a private intelligence ring reporting to the party. Smuts Ngonyama, ANC chief representative, denied this week that the ANC encroached on state territory with private intelligence work, but was unable to say what Maleka’s exact position was. Maleka refused to comment.
Two more private investigators independently said this week they knew Maleka as the Luthuli House security head. One said Maleka appeared to have direct access to Mbeki and told how Maleka issued orders to senior Cabinet members.
One leading ANC member described Maleka, who was incarcerated on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela, as a “very shady character” with no officially senior designation. Pressed to account for Maleka’s influence, he said: “Let’s be straight. Tito worked in Thabo’s office [the Department of International Affairs, headed by Mbeki during the early 1990s] … Tito was working in a situation where he had access to information.”
Trytsman – angered by the way Moosa dismissed his work in Parliament – this week confirmed Maleka’s role. He told the M&G he saw Maleka as the “third in charge at Luthuli house” and described himself as “an informer to Luthuli House”. He claimed that on several occasions he had been allocated to “whichever minister would be involved” to continue investigations initiated at Luthuli House.
Trytsman said the ANC headquarters asked him last October to investigate fishing quota irregularities. While he was formally contracted to Mabudafhasi, he also reported “daily” to Luthuli House – mostly to Maleka. He said he handed one of his reports to Mbeki personally, at Luthuli House on December 22.
More testimony of Mbeki’s personal involvement comes from Antoinette Versfeld, the Democratic Party MP who forced Moosa to make his embarrassing admission. Versfeld, also on the trail of quota corruption, told the M&G she submitted written questions to Moosa. The questions first appeared on the parliamentary roll on March 17, but disappeared without reason on two occasions.
Versfeld said Moosa gave his written response this week only after she threatened to resubmit her questions for oral answer, which might have put Moosa in more of a spot. Versfeld said she had earlier met Trytsman in Mabudafhasi’s presence. On December 10, with Trytsman present, she asked Mabudafhasi about Trytsman. The deputy minister answered Trytsman “was appointed by the president”.
Mbeki’s representative, Parks Mankahlana, was unavailable for comment. Environment affairs representative Didi Moyle said Mabudafhasi maintained she personally appointed Trytsman, and that no tender procedure was followed because of the “urgency”. Trytsman was called in rather than the National Intelligence Agency or police due to “the need for confidentiality”.
Moyle defended the R558 000 price tag for less than two full months’ work, saying Trytsman had been assisted by five others – and that each team member got R3E000 a day. But the size of Trytsman’s team remains contentious: Trytsman this week claimed there had been eight investigators, while a senior official said Trytsman was seen with only one other.
Asked about the sudden termination of Trytsman’s contract in January, Moyle said: “His services were cut short because of a conflict of interest when it came to our attention that he had direct interests in the fishing industry.”
Trytsman this week gave a different explanation: “The minute I started uncovering that ANC members were involved [in fishing quota corruption] I was told, ‘That’s it, you can go.'” Trytsman claimed his secret reports detailed evidence of bribery and other serious crimes, also by top ANC members, and that Moosa was wrong when he told Parliament that no corruption was uncovered.