Former Transport Minister Mac Maharaj is not sure whether National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was ever a spy, it emerged at day ten of the Hefer commission on Wednesday.
Marumo Moerane, counsel for Ngcuka, said on Tuesday that a report prepared by former ANC intelligence operative Mo Shaik, which concluded that his client was ”most probably” an apartheid spy was factually flawed.
Moerane said the apartheid-era intelligence report drew ”flawed conclusions from incorrect facts”.
Asked whether he believed in the accuracy of the report, Maharaj said he had relied entirely on Mr Mo Shaik, ”because he and his outfit were trained to do that work and were doing it effectively”.
”I put it to you simply and bluntly, Mr Maharaj, that Mr Bulelani Ngcuka was never a spy, that he was never an agent of the security police, and that he was never an agent of the national intelligence service. What is your response to that?,” said Moerane.
Maharaj said that it was a question that needed to be ”legitimately” investigated.
”Why is it so difficult to say that you don’t know,” said Moerane, to which Maharaj replied: ”I’ll accept that”.
”Now the whole of South Africa knows that Mr Mac Maharaj does not know it Bulelani Ngcuka is a spy,” said Moerana.
The next set of questions for Maharaj focused on a meeting he had with President Thabo Mbeki.
Maharaj was asked by Moerane what the purpose of his visit was.
”The purpose of that visit was, one, to say to him that I was not coming to see him about my personal problems with the Scorpions. Two, that the information that had been gathered in the country in the late 80’s onwards, which had concluded about the questions around Mr Ngcuka, was available, and three, that I found myself in a situation concerned enough to consider going public.”
Hefer then asked why he had seen the President about this matter.
”In August my level of concern went to another level of seriousness. By that time I knew that Mr Bulelani had briefed the editors. I believe to this day, in that briefing, he did more than just abuse his office. He committed a number of criminal acts. He had been the person party to destroying me name, irrespective of whether there was sufficient evidence”.
”I could not place credence on his authority … danger had arisen for the country. I thought it correct that I should bring this to his attention.”
”The president looked at the report and he kept asking himself on several occasions ‘What do we do about this matter’.
”I said to him, ‘Comrade President, it is not for me to say what you should do … You need a process that would satisfy you with information about how to act.”
”I said to him ‘the information is there, you should be able to call a group of experts in the intelligence field, put the information before them, put them around a table … they need to sit down and anlayse the material and give him a considered report outside of the public eye.”
”The President’s reaction was that he would think about it.”
Other questions by Moerane focused on an e-tv programme that was taped on August 19 at Mo Shaik’s house. Gideon Niewoudt, a past member of the Special Branch, was also at the house. Maharaj said Niewoudt was one of the police officers that had interrogated him in the 1980’s.