Mbeki tackles De Lille after Hefer

South African President Thabo Mbeki has taken issue with Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille for not putting allegations that certain of his ministers — including Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna — were spies for the apartheid regime before the Hefer Commission of Inquiry.

In a letter to former judge Joos Hefer, thanking him for the work of his commission — the final report of which was released on Tuesday clearing National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka of allegations that he was an apartheid spy — the president said he had noted that attorneys representing De Lille had written to the judge to say she was unfortunately not in a position to assist the commission in any manner with matters relevant to the commission’s terms of reference.

The president said: ”I trust that the National Assembly will follow up this matter, since she made the spying allegations against Minister Maduna in the assembly.”

She made the allegations in the first democratic Parliament when she was still a Pan Africanist Congress MP. She was talking under parliamentary privilege at the time.

Mbeki said to the judge that he also fully agreed with him that ”anything which may discredit either the institution or the office of the national director or the person holding the office, is manifestly of constitutional significance and indubitably of public importance”.

Mbeki appeared to be reacting to opposition arguments that the commission had been a waste of money.

Significantly he added that: ”I have taken a similar position with regard to ministers of state. This is why the Hon De Lille’s accusations have such grave implications for our government, our democratic system of governance, and therefore the country.”

De Lille said she would be drafting a response in due course.

She had been under the impression that the spy allegations against the ministers was not part of the mandate of the Hefer commission. — I-Net Bridge