While the ruling African National Congress has tried to take the vicious political battles in its midst behind closed doors, two key events this week reveal the storm beneath the calm.
From the funeral of Brett Kebble in Cape Town to the first sitting of the Khampepe commission in Pretoria, the divisions and fissures in the ruling ranks were evident.
The Brett Kebble saga — from his virtual single-handed funding of an ANC faction to his violent death, and the reactions to it — is a manifestation of the vicious political battle being waged in the ruling party.
The extravagant praise heaped on Kebble by some ANC figures — despite evidence suggesting he was a scoundrel — flows from the conception of him as Robin Hood, robbing rich and anonymous shareholders to give to the previously disadvantaged and, more importantly, to fund a popular political revolt against President Thabo Mbeki.
Many Kebble supporters believe this cost him his life, despite no evidence of political motives for his murder. The decision to dispatch Mbeki super-loyalist Essop Pahad to give a eulogy suggests the Presidency was keenly aware of the need to counter this perception and stem the torrent of speculation.
Also signalling that upheaval is the fight over the future of the Scorpions, being fought in outwardly restrained legal terms at the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry. Some in the tripartite alliance believe the unit has been manipulated by Mbeki to fight his political battles.
Chaired by Judge Sisi Khampepe, the commission was set up in March after Mbeki came under intense pressure in the Cabinet to have the Directorate of Special Operations, the Scorpions’ formal title, incorporated in the police under national commissioner Jackie Selebi’s control.
Selebi has lobbied intensely for control of the elite unit — an approach seen not only as conventional bureaucratic empire-building, but also as a bid to bolster the political challenge to Mbeki.
Selebi was once seen as close to Mbeki when he played a part in pursuing the infamous ‘plot†allegations against businessmen Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa.
Now he is regarded as firmly in the Zuma camp, having first showed his hand during the arrest of former ANC intelligence agent Bheki Jacobs — widely suspected of being Mbeki’s informal eyes and ears — during the 2003 Hefer commission. Selebi’s private police jet flew especially to Cape Town to ‘uplift†Jacobs, who was later released when the National Prosecuting Authority declined to prosecute him.
As the Mail & Guardian reported at the time, it was Zuma confidant Mo Shaik who laid the complaint against Jacobs with Selebi himself. The charge against Jacobs stemmed from a dossier he allegedly authored implicating a host of powerful figures, including Selebi, in a plot against the president.
Late last year, Shaik was telling reporters that the demise of the Scorpions was a done deal, but the appointment of the Khampepe commission appears to have deflected some of the pressure.
National Intelligence Agency (NIA) director general Billy Masetlha may have attacked the Scorpions’ intelligence-gathering activities, but in argument, the agency’s counsel George Bizos urged the retention of the elite unit as an independent entity. The NIA also helped foil a police bid to have its evidence led in camera.
Masetlha’s attack on the Scorpions with formal support expressed in its legal submissions suggest the agency is also politically divided.
It is well worth remembering that the NIA also came to Mbeki’s rescue at the Hefer commission, effectively kiboshing serious investigation of Bulelani Ngcuka’s past by blocking access to its files and forbidding agents or former agents from interacting directly with the commission.
While many NIA operatives are considered sympathetic to Zuma — once head of ANC intelligence — Mbeki’s appointment of Ronnie Kasrils last year to replace Lindiwe Sisulu as Minister of Intelligence was seen as a move to reassert control over the agency.
Masetlha told the M&G recently no threat to state security was posed by the political disputes besetting the ruling party. However, his public appearance at and confrontation with Selebi outside the ANC’s headquarters, after a fire at the offices of secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe, suggests he believes things are a little more serious.
Indeed, some influential business people are privately worried that South Africa is approaching hazardous levels of political instability.
There is growing recognition, even among his supporters, that Zuma cannot be the next president — but a matching insistence that he should not be thrown to the wolves of prosecution.
The M&G understands tentative steps towards a legal and political compromise are under way. Impediments to such an outcome are the large egos of two powerful men and the mandarins and power-brokers who have bet their futures on one of them gaining ascendancy.
Scorpions accused of advancing personal and political vendettas
Tensions between the country’s law enforcement agencies burst into the open this week, with the police and to a lesser extent the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) accusing the Scorpions of abuse of power and overstepping its mandate when investigating criminal cases.
In their submissions to the Khampepe commission, which started in Pretoria this week, the NIA and the police this week criticised ‘some elements†in the Scorpions for using the elite crime-fighting unit to advance personal and political vendettas.
The Scorpions are at the centre of a political battle being fought at the highest levels of the African National Congress. It has come under intense political pressure after investigating senior ANC members including former deputy president Jacob Zuma, former ANC Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Tony Yengeni, former ANC chief whip.
President Thabo Mbeki appointed the commission in March this year to examine the Scorpions’ mandate and their relationship with other security and intelligence bodies. Centrally at issue is whether the unit should be incorporated into the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Legal counsel for the agency George Bizos argued for the retention of the indepedence of the Scorpions.
NIA director general Billy Masetlha is likely to be pushing for the Scorpions to lose their intelligence gathering powers.
Masetlha argued that Scorpions investigators did not have the necessary training for their intelligence activities and ‘this constitutes a national security risk that — the NIA cannot ignoreâ€.
In addition, the unit did not have the capacity to conduct some large investigations and relied on auditing companies and private investigators, resulting in ‘the privatisation of investigationâ€.
Masetlha said the reliance of the National Prosecuting Authority — to which the Scorpions report — on foreign intelligence agencies was also detrimental to national security.
He accused the Scorpions of a lack of accountability, effectiveness and proper oversight in respect of intelligence operations.
Earlier this week, the SAPS also argued that the Scorpions should be placed under police control. Said police representative Philip Jacobs: ‘The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, in terms of the Constitution, is not a minister with the responsibilities in respect of intelligence functions or policing functions, especially in respect of the investigation of crime.
Jacobs dismissed as ‘untrue†allegations that SAPS members lacked the skills to manage priority crimes.
‘A huge number of SAPS members involved in organised crime and other priority crime investigations have tertiary qualifications. In addition, such investigators and intelligence personnel are seasoned officers who have years of practical investigation experience and also receive extensive in-service trainingâ€.
At Thursday’s hearings, counsel for the justice department Dabi Kumalo said it was an opportune time to consider the ‘relocation†of the Scorpions, as the threat of serious crime had significantly diminished. However, Kumalo added that ‘in the present framework it would not be possible to achieve cooperation between the police and the Scorpionsâ€.
The relationship had broken down irreparably and was unlikely to improve. ‘Even if remedies that the minister suggested are applied, the lack of coordination may undermine law enforcement.†— Matuma Letsoalo