Former national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) Bulelani Ngcuka on Friday threatened legal action against African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) leader Fikile Mbalula.
Ngcuka said he rejected ”with contempt” insinuations by Mbalula ”and any other person, directly or indirectly” that he had a hand in the laying of a rape charge against former deputy president Jacob Zuma.
”Ngcuka is flabbergasted by the outbursts that have become synonymous with Mbalula since the former NDPP started to investigate the league’s sponsor, Brett Kebble, a few years ago,” his spokesperson, Sipho Ngwema, said.
”Ngcuka wishes to state categorically that he does not know and has never met the complainant in the Zuma rape case.
”The inference that Ngcuka might have had something to do with the case is not only false and malicious, but is without any basis in law and common sense. Accordingly, Ngcuka is seeking legal advice for possible legal action, criminal and civil, against Mbalula and others.”
Mbalula told reporters on Thursday that ANCYL believed Zuma’s accuser was bribed to lay the charge against him. However, he did not know who had paid this bribe and how much it was.
”The ANCYL will further probe and satisfy itself about rumours that she was paid and/or bribed. In this context, we must probe whether there was no evil hand led by people such as Malume [Uncle] Ronnie and Malume Ngcuka,” Mbalula said.
Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils was contacted by the woman after she and Zuma had sex last November. Kasrils was listed as a state witness in Zuma’s rape trial. In the end, however, he only supplied a statement to the court and was not called to testify.
Kasrils said on Thursday he told the complainant he would not get involved as it would politicise the matter and would therefore not be in her interest.
”The complainant in the Jacob Zuma rape trial called me on November 4 2005 to say that she had been raped by Jacob Zuma,” Kasrils wrote in a statement placed on the South African Press Association’s wire service.
”She approached me in my personal capacity, and not by virtue of my official position as minister for intelligence services, because I had known her and her family in exile.
”I told her that my involvement would politicise the matter and would therefore not be in her interest.
”This is clearly stated in my affidavit. It is clear from my affidavit, which was requested by the prosecution and made available to the defence, that I did nothing to aggravate the situation, I did nothing that was prejudicial to Jacob Zuma and I was not in any way part of any conspiracy. I am not a significant part of the sequence of events.”
He continued: ”I wish to quote the salient statement from my affidavit, which is as follows: ‘I explained to her that I was not in a position to take up this issue since I was concerned that to do so would politicise the matter. I informed her further that I was not in a position to give her any advice and that she should do what she felt was correct in the circumstances’.” — Sapa