Justin Arenstein
Mpumulanga agent provocateur James Nkambule who is the central informant to the police and African National Congress on the alleged plot to overthrow President Thabo Mbeki admits he has repeatedly betrayed those close to him to further his own political career.
The charismatic African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) leader who has admitted to defrauding the government in a R2,3-million scam is currently in protective custody while Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete leads a high-level probe into his latest conspiracy theory.
The theory, outlined in two separate affidavits to Mbeki, attempts to implicate Deputy President Jacob Zuma, former premier Mathews Phosa, former defence minister Joe Modise, a string of ANC Cabinet members in Mpumalanga and senior party leaders in murder, fraud and theft, bribery, tender rigging, intimidation and tampering with official records.
Nkambule has used subsequent interviews with the police to try to link businessmen Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale to the conspiracy.
All those implicated have dismissed Nkambule’s allegations, but police investigators appear to be relying on clandestine video and audio recordings of Nkambule’s meetings with some of the players.
What investigators don’t know, however, is that Nkambule’s affidavits were written on former Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) chief Alan Gray’s computer.
Gray and Nkambule are currently fighting 77 criminal theft and fraud charges for allegedly siphoning millions out of state coffers through a network of shady front companies.
They allege the systematic theft was designed to bankroll the ANC and claim that some of the money was used to fund Phosa’s campaign for deputy president in 1997 in defiance of the ANC’s endorsement of Jacob Zuma.
Nkambule has publicly admitted that at least R105 000 of the money was channelled directly to the ANCYL, while additional large amounts were used to pay for two ANC provincial congresses, as well as pay for ANC promotional material.
Some of the stolen funds were allegedly used to repair Nkambule’s private vehicle, pay his wife’s maternity bills, buy clothes and pay the 28-year-old politician a ”consultancy” fee for community work.
The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) raided his Barberton home and Gray’s luxury Nelspruit mansion last month as a result of the charges. All their assets, including local and foreign bank accounts, properties, vehicles, and commercial interests were attached for auction in an attempt to compensate the state for its losses.
”I intend challenging the seizure and still believe that this is retaliation by the powerful people I have helped expose. I have no problem repaying the taxpayer for any money that might have been irregularly paid to me, but the timing for the raid is strange especially when there still isn’t a conviction in the fraud trial,” said Nkambule.
He also expressed concern that only documentation, computer disks and nine audio cassette tapes were confiscated by AFU investigators. ”Those tapes contain vital evidence of my dealings,” he said.
AFU representatives confirmed the seizure but stressed the documentation and other material was merely being reviewed for possible leads on hidden assets.
Tshwete’s revelations about the alleged plot against Mbeki are, however, not new. Nkambule first drafted detailed but unsubstantiated allegations claiming anti-Mbeki plots in November 1998.
His first 11-page ”special report” to Mbeki confessed that he had pilfered money from the MPB and other state agencies to bankroll Phosa’s election campaign and ”recruit” senior journalists on the City Press, Star, Sowetan and Sunday Independent.
The allegations sparked the internal Maphisa-Nqakula ANC commission that ultimately saw Phosa exiled from active politics in June 1999 after he was branded an ”autocratic leader” who abused his power for personal aggrandisement.
Nkambule himself did not escape unscathed, and was slated as a ”factionalist” who also misused his public influence to lead divisive campaigns for personal political gain. He was suspended from the ANCYL and banned from public office until the party’s redeployment committee was convinced he has been ”reformed”, but he has instead allowed his ANC membership to lapse.
The Teflon-coated youth leader appears to thrive on controversy and has managed to retain a pivotal role in provincial politics despite the indictment and criminal charges.
Nkambule played a key role in advising Phosa’s successor, Ndaweni Mahlangu, on whom to include in his new provincial Cabinet and was given a directorship in the province’s local government department shortly after Mahlangu assumed office.
His support for Mahlangu appears to have been short-lived, however, and he is currently fighting an unfair dismissal case in the Labour Court after Mahlangu unilaterally terminated his services last year.
Nkambule has already defeated three of Mahlangu’s previous attempts to oust him after he and three other senior local government officials were charged with gross misconduct charges for allegedly threatening their departmental head, Bruno Vilani, with physical violence during a heated meeting about suspected nepotism in July 2000.
Vilani contended at the time that the four accused him of masterminding former local government MEC Fish Mahlalela’s downfall by drafting a two-page sworn statement alleging that Mahlalela was plotting to overthrow Mahlangu.
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration ruled last month that the charges were ”trumped up” and ordered Nkambule’s immediate reinstatement. The province was instructed to pay Nkambule R90000 in salary arrears, plus legal costs.
The turn-around echoes Nkambule’s previous reinstatement in April 2000 just three weeks after Mahlangu branded him ”undesirable” and fired him from the government.
Nkambule refused to accept the dismissal and said he would only go ”quietly” if the government paid him a R867 000 golden handshake the equivalent of his salary for the next four years. Mpumalanga could not afford the potential public backlash and capitulated. African Eye News Service