A former African National Congress intelligence operative appeared in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday in connection with an alleged plot to oust or kill President Thabo Mbeki.
Forty-one year old Bheki Jacobs, a shadowy figure, appeared in court under the name Uranin Vladimir Dzerzhinsky Solomon. He has also apparently used the name Hassan Solomons, according to Business Day.
Jacobs is in custody at the Pretoria Central police station while detectives investigate the case. He is expected to appear before the same court on Friday.
No charges were put to him, but a senior prosecutor said the charge sheet listed an allegation of conspiracy or incitement in terms of the Riotous Assemblies Act, as well as charges of fraud and contraventions of legislation pertaining to births and deaths registration, identity documents, and passports and travel documents.
Police were tightlipped yesterday: national spokesperson Director Phuti Setati declined to confirm the man’s name, the charges being investigated against him, or the reason for his arrest in Cape Town over the weekend.
He would only say that the man used several aliases, and police were still trying to establish his true identity.
Presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo told the Mail & Guardian Online that the matter was one for the security services.
The Sunday Times reported that Jacobs was suspected of compiling a dossier containing allegations of a plot to oust or kill Mbeki. According to ThisDay newspaper, the plot would have involved tampering with the presidential jet.
Business Day described Jacobs as ”paranoid, even delusional” and reported him telling acquaintances that ”he was Mbeki’s secret agent keeping an eye on MPs”.
Business Day said he was born in Durban and completed his schooling in Cape Town. The paper said that in the mid-1980’s he went into exile and apparently ended up in the Soviet Union.
He was arrested in Cape Town after a raid on his properties all over the country.
Business Day said that Jacob’s arrest had to do with an anonymous document that has been circulated to politicians and the media. The document apparently mentions a plot in which the president’s diary committee and his VIP protection unit were planning to kill Mbeki by tampering with the presidential jet. The plotters would then replace him with their candidate, Business Day said. – Sapa