The former head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Bulelani Ngcuka, did everything in his power to protect the reputation of former deputy president Jacob Zuma, according to an affidavit filed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
In the document, Ngcuka denies allegations of involvement in any political conspiracy against Zuma.
”In retrospect, it is that I may have tried too hard to protect accused number one’s [Zuma’s] reputation and not the contrary,” he said. ”I am verily of the belief that these rumours have been started and fuelled by Zuma and his supporters in an attempt to deflect from the seriousness of the charges which he is facing.”
The affidavit was included in a response to submissions by Zuma on August 31 in his corruption trial.
Zuma claims the investigation was ”designed from the outset solely or mainly to destroy my reputation or political role-playing ability”.
His supporters, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), charged that Ngcuka’s actions were evidence of a political conspiracy. However, Cosatu conceded on Tuesday that it did not have ”conclusive proof” of a conspiracy.
Ngcuka contends that his ”off the record” media briefing — which left critics claiming the NPA was cooperating with the media — was instead an attempt to ”dispel defamatory and damaging rumours that were being circulated” about him.
These included the ”allegation, which was later brought into the public domain by a certain ex-journalist who now acts as media consultant to accused number one [Zuma], that I was an apartheid spy”.
He accuses Zuma of trying to ”resurrect” defamatory allegations, of which ”the main source appeared to be Vusi Mona, former editor of the City Press”.
”This is a man whose integrity and reliability were thoroughly discredited in the Hefer commission,” he says.
Affidavits
The submission, made available to the South African Press Association on Tuesday, includes affidavits by NPA head Vusi Pikoli, former justice minister Penuell Maduna, Scorpions head advocate Leonard McCarthy, advocates Billy Downer, SC, and Anton Steynberg and Scorpions investigator Johan du Plooy.
Pikoli says Zuma chose to rely on rumours, press reports, speculation and innuendo. ”I am advised that these accusations are scurrilous and unfounded, and that they appear to be part of a concerted publicity campaign,” he says.
He had informed Zuma himself of his ”difficult” decision to prosecute rather than let him find out through the media. ”On a personal level this was not an easy task for me, as this was a man that I had looked up to as my political leader during my time in exile,” says Pikoli.
He contends that the search-and-seizure raids in the matter were challenged not because of any breach of privacy, but instead to stop the use of relevant and incriminating evidence against the accused in the trial.
Pikoli also denies Zuma’s allegation that he was axed as deputy president as a result of the charges against him. President Thabo Mbeki could not have known of the decision to prosecute, he says. It was made after Mbeki’s announcement about Zuma to Parliament on July 14 last year.
His ”prosecution team” briefed him on the chances of a successful conviction on July 17, Pikoli says. He informed Mbeki on July 20 of his decision to prosecute.
”By asserting, without a shred of proof, that the real reason [for Zuma’s dismissal] was that I had decided to prosecute accused number one [Zuma] for corruption, accused number one is effectively branding the president [Mbeki] a liar.
”I challenge accused number one to pertinently state that the president lied to Parliament and to spell out whether or not he asserts that the president is also a party to the alleged political conspiracy against him.”
Pikoli says his decision was influenced by, among other things, Zuma’s repeated calls to ”have his day in court”.
In his affidavit, Maduna points out that Zuma’s allegations of a political conspiracy surfaced only after he was charged as ”a ploy to evoke uninformed public sympathy and to deflect attention” from the serious charges he faced.
While the NPA had sought to protect Zuma’s identity by calling him ”Mr X”, his former financial adviser, fraud convict Schabir Shaik, ”deliberately and cynically” revealed his identity in court papers. — Sapa