What was Project Avani? And how did it link to spying on African National Congress businessman Saki Macozoma?
Those are some of the questions raised by tantalising new glimpses into the circumstances surrounding the suspension of National Intelligence Agency (NIA) director general Billy Masetlha that emerged in court papers this week.
Masetlha on Monday approached the Pretoria High Court seeking an urgent interdict preventing the inspector general of intelligence, Zolile Ngcakani, from questioning him.
Masetlha had been summoned to be questioned by the chief operating officer in Ngcakani’s office, Imtiaz Fazel, together with the inspector general’s legal adviser, advocate Jay Govender.
The two had been mandated by Ngcakani to investigate certain NIA activities after a complaint by Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils.
It is a criminal offence to refuse to cooperate in an investigation of the inspector general, but Masetlha approached the court to compel Ngcakani to allow him to have his lawyers present during the interrogation.
He also demanded that the inspector general provide him with details of Kasrils’s complaint, identify the specific allegations made against him and provide him with relevant extracts of the preliminary report on the Macozoma matter that prompted Kasrils to suspend him.
Correspondence attached to Masetlha’s application was heavily censored, but for the first time the name of the NIA project being investigated slipped out: Project Avani.
No details are revealed about the secret project, but the Mail & Guardian understands Avani was intended to probe the causes of the violent municipal protests that sprang up around the country this year.
It is not clear how or even if this project related to the surveillance of Macozoma.
Indeed, that seems to be unclear to Masetlha himself.
In a letter to the inspector general, Masetlha’s attorney asks: “What, if any, is the relation between Project [deleted] and the investigation into the surveillance of [deleted]?”
When Kasrils suspended Masetlha on October 20 at a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki, he referred to a preliminary finding by the inspector general that the surveillance operation on Macozoma was unlawful and unprocedural.
But just what that operation entailed is still unclear, as there are allegations of a physical surveillance of Macozoma’s home and, in addition, there is the vexed matter of the so-called “hoax e-mails”, which may or may not have been intercepted by the NIA.
The legal status of these documents is unclear. Kasrils has refused a request to release copies of them, but, as the M&G reported last week, ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe distributed copies to ANC national executive committee members at the most recent meeting, though they later had to be handed back.
With regard to the physical surveillance, a top intelligence source has indicated that the NIA has explained that this took place during the “hot pursuit” of a foreign national whose physical surveillance had been authorised.
Whether this individual had been meeting with Macozoma, or whether the authorised surveillance was used as a cover for spying on Macozoma is not clear.
But Masetlha’s legal correspondence reveals that when Kasrils suspended him, he handed the intelligence boss a letter extending the terms of reference of the investigation by the inspector general to include Project Avani.
It also emerges from the correspondence that it was about this project — Avani — that Masetlha had delivered a private briefing to Mbeki the previous day, October 19.
What is clear from the latest legal skirmishing is that Masetlha is not yet ready to give up the fight to retain his position.
He continues to maintain that his suspension by Kasrils was unlawful, because only the president has the power to hire and fire him.
Further, Masetlha dismisses the president’s attempt to remedy the situation by issuing a presidential minute on November 15 confirming the suspension and backdating it to October 20.
The suspended spy boss states in his affidavit: “I deny that the president took any decision at our meeting of 20 October to suspend me.”
Unexpectedly, the inspector general backed down from his demand to interview Masetlha and tendered to pay the costs of his application.
Round one to Masetlha — but the spy war is far from over.