Another man has been arrested in connection with the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) hoax e-mail saga, police said on Monday.
The NIA’s manager for electronic surveillance, Funokwakhe Madladla, was arrested on Monday morning after he handed himself over to the police.
”He was charged with fraud and briefly appeared briefly in the Pretoria Commercial Crime Court where his bail was set at R5 000 and the case postponed to June 19,” said Captain Dennis Adriao, national police spokesperson.
This follows the arrest last week of Muziwendoda Kunene, a software salesman, who also handed himself over to police after a warrant for his arrest on a charge of fraud relating to the hoax e-mails was issued.
According to the charge sheet, Kunene supplied ”intercepted e-mails” to Madladla, who had to take it up further in the agency.
Kunene was employed or contracted by the NIA to intercept e-mails and other electronic communication. The NIA paid him R152 000 to do this.
He handed several documents that he claimed to be intercepted e-mails and electronic communications to Madladla.
It was later found that these documents were fabricated and did not originate from the parties purported to have written them.
The hoax e-mails implicated senior African National Congress members in a conspiracy against the party’s deputy president, Jacob Zuma, and secretary general, Kgalema Motlanthe.
The saga resulted in President Thabo Mbeki’s dismissal of National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha, who was replaced by Manala Manzini.
Adriao said the police investigation into the e-mail saga continues. — Sapa