Zuma won’t complain before Hefer

Deputy President Jacob Zuma will not complain before the Hefer commission about the way in which National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka’s national prosecuting authority is treating him, former judge Joos Hefer announced on Wednesday.

Hefer said at the beginning of the day’s public commission hearing in Bloemfontein that he had been corresponding with Zuma’s office on the matter.

From this it became clear that Zuma was not happy with the treatment he was receiving from Ngcuka’s office. The deputy president nevertheless preferred not to use the commission as a forum to resolve this, Hefer said.

Zuma recently lodged an official complaint against Ngcuka with the public protector.

This followed the Ngcuka’s announcement that his department had established a prima facie corruption case against Zuma. Ngcuka nevertheless declined to charge Zuma for allegedly soliciting a bribe, because the prospects of conviction were too slim.

Hefer also announced on Wednesday that Zuma had informed him he was not part of an apartheid-era spy investigation against Ngcuka.

According to the deputy president his only knowledge of the spy claim against Ngcuka came from an earlier report that Mo Shaik had handed to him.

For this reason, Hefer said, he had decided not to subpoena Zuma to testify.

Hefer’s comments left Shaik, Ngcuka’s main accuser, out in the cold.

Shaik served during the anti-apartheid struggle under Zuma’s command in the African National Congress’s intelligence operations. His earlier testimony alleged that Zuma did take part in the investigation into Ngcuka as a suspected spy.

“I have reason to believe that [Ngcuka] is investigating [Zuma] now because he knew that [Zuma] had investigated him then,” Shaik testified.

With this, he suggested that the prosecution authority’s corruption investigation against Zuma was in retaliation for the erstwhile spy investigation against Ngcuka.

Evidence so far before the commission indicated that Shaik was the sole source of the spy claim against Ngcuka. Shaik has called on the commission to ask Zuma for independent confirmation of the apartheid-era investigation into Ngcuka.

He insisted that he had reported on the matter to Zuma. — Sapa