/ 1 September 2006

Hoax e-mail trial date set

The trial of two men implicated in the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) hoax e-mail saga will start in November.

Software salesperson Muziwendoda Kunene and the NIA’s manager for electronic surveillance Funokwakhe Madladla stand accused of fraud relating to the hoax e-mails.

On Friday, their case in the Pretoria Commercial Crime Court was set down for trial from November 24.

Kunene was employed or contracted by the NIA to intercept e-mails and other electronic communication, for which he was paid R152 000.

He handed several documents he claimed were 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 e-mails implicated senior African National Congress members in a conspiracy against the party’s deputy president Jacob Zuma, and secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe.

Kunene will appear in a separate case on the same issue in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court early in November. — Sapa