Judge Joos Hefer has no current plans to call Deputy President Jacob Zuma to testify before his commission, his secretary John Bacon said on Tuesday.
Bacon said there was at the moment no need for Zuma’s testimony.
In the past week the deputy president has been linked repeatedly to Hefer’s probe into spy allegations against National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka.
Mo Shaik — the main source of a claim that Ngcuka probably acted as a spy for the apartheid government — told the commission that he was ”carrying a flag” for Zuma.
Ngcuka recently announced that his national prosecuting authority had established a prima facie case against Zuma for allegedly soliciting a bribe relating to the country’s multi-billion rand arms deal. The allegations against Ngcuka surfaced shortly afterwards.
Shaik advised Hefer last week to call Zuma to the witness box as former head of the African National Congress’ intelligence operations during apartheid. Shaik, also a former ANC intelligence commander, said he reported to Zuma in about 1989 about an investigation concluding that Ngcuka was most probably a spy.
Shaik’s call on Hefer was an apparent attempt to secure independent confirmation of the apartheid-era investigation into Ngcuka.
The Democratic Alliance has repeatedly called for an extension of Hefer’s terms of reference to include Zuma and the arms deal.
The ANC has stated twice that it was not necessary for Zuma to testify before Hefer. The ANC had already handed over all its apartheid-era intelligence files to be incorporated by government’s post-1994 intelligence agencies, party spokespersons explained.
Bacon said on Tuesday the commission hoped to hand in its first report to President Thabo Mbeki in January. Evidence and testimony obtained until then would determine whether it would be an interim or final report.
Hefer aimed to finish his public hearings by December 12, Bacon said. – Sapa