A lawyer’s letter has revealed how Umgeni Water tried to cover up its illegal activities Paul Kirk The Mail & Guardian has obtained documentary proof that a cash-strapped parastatal organisation, Umgeni Water, has illegally tapped the telephones of serving and past senior employees as well as members of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu). The illegal telephone bugging operation was carried out at a cost of R51 000 an amount that appears to have been entirely paid for by the taxpayer. The cost of the exercise is confirmed in a damning letter in the M&G’s possession. Less than an hour after asking Umgeni Water for comment on the letter and faxing a copy of it to Umgeni Water’s offices an unidentified person phoned the M&G and offered R5 000 in cash for all copies of the document.
The caller, a male, refused to identify himself but asked to meet at the Pavilion shopping centre in Westville. The letter is only a single page and is a communication to Umgeni Water CEO Cromet Molepo from his then lawyer Robinson Manzi of Robinson Manzi and Company.
Headed “Tapes in your possession”, the letter is dated November 29 2000 and confirms “that our office paid R15 000 and R36 000 to Sibusiso on your instructions for the tapes in which some offices of employees under investigation were bugged”. The M&G can reveal that “Sibusiso” is in fact Sibusiso Ncube, a former member of the South African National Defence Force who claims to work for various large national security companies. The M&G could not locate Ncube in the week before going to press. After its shocking opening paragraph the letter continues: “In terms of the law such bugging is illegal.” It then exhorts Molepo to hand the tapes over to Manzi immediately so that they would be protected under attorney-client privilege.
When the M&G visited Manzi and showed him the letter he confirmed it to be an authentic document. “You can write that you showed me the letter and that I verified it is in fact my signature on the letter and that it is a real document. Shortly after that letter was written I withdrew as the legal representative of Umgeni. I am not running the sort of practice that I need to accept any business at all. I do not have to tout for business from anyone,” said Manzi.
He told the M&G that he paid the telephone bugger with one of his practice’s cheques. Umgeni Water then issued a cheque in favour of Manzi’s practice to compensate for the cheque he drew. The effect of this transaction was to try to hide the fact that Umgeni had paid for illegal telephone taps. Manzi said that, apart from Molepo, at least two other senior Umgeni Water officials had full knowledge of the telephone tapping. Omar Latiff, a member of the board of directors, had knowledge of the operation, as did Todani Moyo, a member of Umgeni’s executive committee. According to Manzi, it was Moyo who wrote the cheque to compensate his practice for having paid for the bugging. In terms of the Interception and Monitoring Prohibition Act of 1995 it is a criminal offence to monitor telephone conversations. Permission has to be sought from a high court judge or a retired high court judge duly authorised by the minister of justice before a telephone can be tapped. Terrence Manase, a representative for the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, said the Act allowed for various penalties to be handed down on transgressors, depending on which clauses of the Act were broken.
The lightest, and most likely penalty, would be a fine of R20 000 and/or two years in jail. Said Manzi: “If Molepo, and some other figures, are not prosecuted for this it will be a complete mystery to me. They have broken the law.” He said Sibusiso claimed that the telephones were tapped by paying Telkom employees to attach listening devices to the lines of those to be monitored.
Telkom representative Ed Tillet said that in the past his organisation had taken action against employees for illegally tapping telephones on behalf of private investigators. Tillet was not in his office at the time of going to press and so could not confirm how many such cases are on record. Well-known Durban private investigator Raymond van Staden, who runs one of the most technologically advanced surveillance countermeasures companies in Southern Africa, said that while he would never bug a telephone illegally, many other operators would. A trawl though the Internet revealed three South African companies openly offering to bug telephones. Van Staden said it is a common practice to bribe Telkom employees to monitor telephones. Unlike in the movies, very few bugs are hidden in telephones. Instead they are attached to telephone lines between the telephone and the exchange.
“Information is valuable and anything that is valuable is liable to attract thieves. Information theft is one of the major growth areas of crime. I find around two to three illegal monitoring devices every year,” said Van Staden: He said most bugging operations are conducted by unscrupulous private investigators acting in partnership with rotten Telkom employees. “We are not dealing with a large number of Telkom operators, just a small rotten core of them. The problem is they are very hard to catch out as they know exactly where to hide bugs along the telephone lines. And the problem is getting worse. A few years ago my company detected maybe a bug every 18 months, now we find two or three every year,” said Van Staden. The names of at least four individuals whose phones were illegally tapped are known to the M&G. One is a senior Nehawu shop steward. The union has repeatedly called for a detailed investigation of Umgeni Water by the Scorpions, the Office for Serious Economic Offences and the Public Protector.
Nehawu has also repeatedly alleged massive corruption on the part of Umgeni Water’s senior management. Some years ago Umgeni Water outsourced its treasury operation to a company called Specialised Outsourcing. It was soon revealed that certain members of Umgeni Water’s board held shares in Specialised Outsourcing. This contract became the subject of an internal investigation that eventually led to the contract being scrapped. Since then Nehawu has been calling for a thorough probe of Umgeni Water by law enforcement agencies. Management on the other hand has been investigating several former and current senior managers following various allegations.
This week the M&G obtained copies of Umgeni Water management meeting records suggesting mismanagement and corruption. In one instance Brian Wallet, chairperson of the board of Umgeni Water, and two others admit to having concealed the theft of R600 000 by a senior financial director. In another instance Umgeni Water admits to having paid nearly R1-million to a contractor “by mistake”. Finally, Latiff is revealed to be the director of a graphic design company that has been awarded Umgeni Water contracts. l A list of questions with regard to this story were faxed to the Pietermaritzburg offices of Umgeni Water on Wednesday night and again on Thursday morning. These were marked for the urgent attention of Cromet Molepo. His office confirmed their receipt but had not responded at the time of going to press.
ENDS