The spy claim against chief prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka hinged by the end Thursday largely on the absence of travel restrictions imposed on him during the apartheid era.
Former African National Congress intelligence operative Mo Shaik relied heavily during the day on allegations that the apartheid government failed to impose travel restrictions on Ngcuka. The motive to be inferred for this was that Ngcuka, now the national director of public prosecutions, informed for them, Shaik suggested.
It was the first day of his long-awaited testimony before the commission. Shaik is one of Ngcuka’s two main accusers. Shaik quoted on Thursday from apartheid state documents indicating that Ngcuka’s passport application in 1981 was issued in about a month.
Ngcuka applied for the passport shortly before the security police detained him in the same year. He was not released from detention, and served three years in various prisons.
Shaik maintained on Thursday that such a short time lapse between application for and receiving a passport was not normal for apartheid South Africa — especially since Ngcuka should have been blacklisted by the security police for his anti-government activities.
The alleged oddity continued when Ngcuka managed to travel with the passport to Switzerland after his release from prison, Shaik added.
By this time the security police should have been thoroughly aware of Ngcuka, who was regarded as a security prisoner, and restricted his travel, he said.
He alleged that Ngcuka’s passport was also renewed in 1986 without the expected restriction. For further ”proof” Shaik relied on three former security policemen.
These included the notorious Gideon Nieuwoudt, whom the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has refused amnesty. Ngcuka’s National Prosecuting Authority is investigating Nieuwoudt’s admitted participation in the killing of the ”Pebco Three” during the eighties.
Shaik nevertheless maintained that he rated the information Nieuwoudt provided as credible.
Nieuwoudt alleged in an earlier anonymous television interview arranged by Shaik that he had proposed a restriction on Ngcuka’s passport. However, this was lifted within 24 hours after a request from the former National Intelligence Service, he held.
Nieuwoudt’s former colleague Bernie Ley confirmed in the same e-tv broadcast that he was involved in the request to remove the restriction.
A third ex-security policeman, whom Shaik refused to identify, confirmed in the broadcast that he stole security police reports for Shaik during the apartheid years. These Shaik analysed to arrive at the conclusion that Ngcuka was a probable spy.
Shaik said on Thursday this man would be killed ”within 24 hours” if his name was revealed.
Shaik admitted that he had arranged for e-tv to interview the men in his house in Pretoria. He paid for Nieuwoudt’s travel costs from Port Elizabeth, he said.
Ngcuka, through his advocate, Marumo Moerane, has since refuted an important part of the travel restriction allegations against him.
Under cross-examination on Wednesday, Moerane extracted a major concession from Ngcuka’s other main accuser, former transport minister Mac Maharaj. He admitted a crucial part of the travel restriction allegations was incorrect. This stated that the restrictions were lifted for Ngcuka to attend talks with the ANC in Dakar in early 1989. No such talks took place.
However, Shaik retorted that the particular statement referred to ”Dakar-type” talks. The security police eventually categorised all so-called contact meetings with the banned ANC on foreign soil as ”Dakar meetings”, he explained.
Naidu further suggested to Shaik that Ngcuka’s passport application was originally granted because the erstwhile security police did not regard him as an activist yet. Shaik refused to concede this.
Shaik’s cross-examination will continue on Friday. Except for Naidu, he is still to be face Moerane and advocate Norman Arendse, counsel for Justice Minister Penuell Maduna. – Sapa