Just as the African National Congress has set up a commission to investigate hoax e-mails, a new e-mail scandal involving the Jewish Board of Deputies and the ANC has erupted.
The board’s national director, Yehuda Kay, has stepped down over an e-mail he sent to the head of the ANC policy centre, Mandla Mabuza, which contained disparaging comments about Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
However, Kay has hit back, claiming that the e-mail was forged and further distributed by someone who had been accessing his e-mail account. He says the police are currently investigating the matter.
Kay says a printout of the e-mail that was presented to Leon with the subject line ”look what the jewz think of leon” was not the e-mail he had originally sent to Mabuza.
The two copies of the e-mail that were sent by Kay to the Mail & Guardian are very similar, with only slight variations in the font and the numbering of points made in the message.
Both contain the line: ”Mandla if you are bored and need some toilet reading material I’ll send you more details of the ‘Tony Rhetoric’.”
”The content is the same,” said Kay. ”But it was my private e-mail to someone and I have a right to my own opinion. Someone has accessed my account to get this e-mail and that is a crime.”
The row began following an address that Leon gave at King David Linksfield High School in Johannesburg earlier this year. The following week Mabuza was due to address the school, and Kay said he (Mabuza) requested an e-mail detailing the issues Leon had touched on the week before.
”I sent an e-mail detailing Tony Leon’s address with the three or four points he talked about,” said Kay.
Kay says on March 8 2006 Leon contacted the board after receiving a printout of the e-mail from someone within the DA.
Kay says he decided to resign, as he did not want the e-mail to harm the board’s image. ”When I got hold of the e-mail that Leon had received I realised that it was not my original e-mail,” says Kay.
Kay says Mabuza denied forwarding the e-mail, and that led him to investigate whether someone had gained access to his e-mail account. He then discovered someone had been accessing his e-mail account via the Internet for a ”considerable amount of time”.
Kay says he has traced the person and the police are currently investigating a case of forgery.
The board’s acting director, David Saks, says Kay’s departure is regretted by all, but the board’s position is clear. ”The Jewish Board of Deputies is a non-partisan apolitical body. Unfortunately by sending that e-mail Mr Kay has compromised that position of the board and decided to resign.”
A member of the Jewish community, who agreed to talk on condition of anonymity, said: ”There was at least one board member who insisted the whole board should resign over the incident.” He said the e-mail should be viewed within the larger debate of how the board relates to the ANC government. ”In the last two years there has been a shift in the Jewish Board of Deputies towards the [Thabo] Mbeki camp of the ANC.”
Democratic Alliance Gauteng MPL Jack Bloom said he had seen the e-mail and it was very inappropriate for a board that should be neutral to make disparaging remarks about Leon.
”It was a resignation issue for any organisation — it’s quite open and shut,” said Bloom.
Leon said he had received an unqualified apology from the chairperson of the board, which he had accepted. ”I now consider this matter to be closed,” he said.
Mabuza is currently out of the country and not available for comment.