Embattled former National Intelligence Agency (NIA) director general Billy Masetlha rejected a golden handshake of more than R1million offered to him by the government after his dismissal.
This is revealed in court documents lodged by Masetlha in a bid to overturn President Thabo Mbeki’s decision to suspend and dismiss him as head of NIA.
This week Imraan Haffegee, Masetlha’s lawyer, also said that Mbeki’s office had offered to pay Masetlha’s legal costs in exchange for him dropping the suspension application.
Haffegee said he believed this indicated Mbeki’s awareness that Masetlha had a case against him.
The hearing is due to start in the Pretoria High Court on September 29.
It has also emerged that Mbeki tried unsuccessfully to reach a settlement with Masetlha to avoid a court case.
Masetlha is entitled to all financial benefits for the remainder of his contract, amended by Mbeki in March, two years before its expiry.
In court papers, he says an amount of R1 035 391 was deposited into his account on the instructions of Public Service Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi and without his knowledge. He instructed his bank to return the money to his former employer. Masetlha’s argument for rejecting the payment is that he would otherwise appear to accept the dismissal, which he believes was unlawful.
Mbeki terminated Masetlha’s contract in March, saying that there was a breakdown of trust.
Masetlha wants Mbeki to explain to the court what he means by ”breakdown of trust”. He argues in his founding affidavit that the decision to fire him was the result of political pressures and accuses Mbeki of taking sides in the political battle raging in the ANC.
He also attacks Intelligence MinisÂÂter Ronnie Kasrils, alleging that Inspector General of Intelligence Zolile Ngcakani, who investigated the alleged ”hoax e-mails”, acted on the orders of Kasrils, who ”has his agenda and motives for wishing to see me lose my position and discredited”.
Mbeki provides few details in his affidavit. He maintains that he fired Masetlha because their relationship has broken down irretrievably, adding: ”It is central to my constitutional responsibilities as head of state as well as head of the executive, particularly in relation to national security, to have confidence in the people who provide me with intelligence.”
By contrast, Kasrils’s affidavit scathingly accuses the former NIA boss of having ”no regard for the office of the president or his integrity”.
He describes Masetlha’s bid to force a review of Mbeki’s decisions to suspend and dismiss him as misconstruing the president’s powers.
Central to Masetlha’s case is his claim that Kasrils dismissed him, while only Mbeki had the power to do this. Kasrils insists he merely executed the president’s decision.
The minister also says Mbeki would argue in court that the decision to suspend Masetlha was rationally connected to a legitimate government purpose.
”To accuse Mbeki of ulterior purpose without any basis, or failing to disclose the basis for such an attack, is most unfortunate and goes to the core of indicating that the remedy to reinstate would be inappropriate,” Kasrils argues.
In a counter-argument, Masetlha challenges Kasrils to explain why, if he merely communicated the president’s decision, he failed to say so in his suspension letter.
He said: ”If Kasrils had wanted to communicate to me a decision of the president, he would have stated as much in his letter. If the president had made the decision to suspend me, he would have acted otherwise than he did in the period leading up to the meeting on October 20 last year. But the president said nothing at all in this regard.”