Astonishing new allegations relating to the ”hoax e-mail” affair and the sacking of former National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha have emerged from a previously secret affidavit.
In it the former spy boss accuses Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils of being the tool of a sinister ”grouping” that was pursuing political objectives with the help of a unit within the Scorpions.
The affidavit makes it clear that, while Masetlha distances himself from the production of the so-called hoax emails, he associates himself broadly with the suggestion they contained a political conspiracy against African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma, involving Kasrils, the Scorpions and other key political figures.
Masetlha does not provide any evidence for his claims and as justification cites a fear that ”national security will be compromised”.
However, the affidavit also reveals that Masetlha produced a written report on this alleged conspiracy that he presented to President Thabo Mbeki on September 26 2005 and which the president read and then destroyed.
This was less than a month before Masetlha’s suspension following a botched surveillance of businessperson Saki Macozoma.
Macozoma featured prominently in the hoax e-mails as an alleged conspirator in the bid to destroy Zuma and neutralise both Masetlha and ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe — and thereby take control of the party.
Last year the Inspector General of Intelligence (IGI), found that the e-mails were fake and accused Masetlha of having a hand in their fabrication. However, the ANC national executive committee (NEC) refused to accept the IGI’s findings and launched its own internal commission of inquiry.
The report of the commission, which also looked into the genesis of the current turmoil in the ANC, has been kept under wraps, but a source close to the process said that it was broadly sympathetic to both Masetlha and Motlanthe.
But at the same time, the same source said, work was under way on striking a ”deal” to deflect and defuse any fallout.
Indications are that no one within the ANC will be held responsible for the damage done by the e-mail saga. Instead, according to four NEC members the Mail & Guardian spoke to, the e-mails will be blamed on an ”outside force”.
There is no clarity about the nature, identity or motive of this outside force. However details are likely to become clearer when the report is presented at the NEC meeting in March.
The report was to have been tabled at a special NEC meeting this Friday — however the meeting was postponed, apparently because several government ministers, as well as Mbeki, were not available.
A full day has now been set aside during the March NEC meeting to discuss the email report.
The M&G understands that no members of the ANC leadership have seen the report — they expect to receive it from the investigating team a day before the NEC meeting.
The chairperson of the investigating team was Hermanus Loots (alias James Stuart), ANC struggle stalwart; Josiah Jele, former ANC NEC member, South Africa’s first post-apartheid ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva and former chairperson of the Security Officers Board; Gilbert Ramano, former South African army chief; and Jackie Sedibe, a former Umkhonto weSizwe commander and now a major general in the South African National Defence Force.
The world according to Billy
The 40-page affidavit by Masetlha provides a fascinating account of Masetlha’s battle with Kasrils and Masetlha’s belief that the moves against him were prompted by a political conspiracy.
The affidavit was filed in camera in the Pretoria High Court last year as part of a bid to challenge Masetlha’s dismissal, but was obtained by the M&G this week.
In a judgement in December, Judge Ben du Plessis ruled that a breakdown of trust between President Thabo Mbeki and Masetlha was a lawful reason for Mbeki’s suspension and sacking of Masetlha.
For his part, Masetlha alleges a sinister plot.
”The minister for intelligence services … has come to regard me as a person who must be removed from office. I am reliably informed that the minister has been influenced by a certain grouping of individuals who see me, in the position of DG [director general], as an obstacle to their objectives in pursuing a particular political agenda. The minister instructed the IGI to carry out an investigation into the surveillance by the NIA of Macozoma.
”The IGI has not acted objectively, independently and impartially towards me, but on conclusion of an ‘investigation’ produced a flawed report in which, without any justification, my conduct was condemned.”
In his answering affidavits, Kasrils rejects these claims as both insulting and unsubstantiated, but in many cases — especially with regard to the so-called ”hoax e-mails” and the mysterious Project Avani — Kasrils also hides behind the need to protect national security.
According to Masetlha, the unnamed ”grouping” trying to undermine him emerged as a result of an official NIA initiative: Project Avani.
Masetlha explains: ”During mid-2005, the NIA was requested by Cabinet to undertake an investigation into the then widespread public unrest directed against local authorities and the causes of such unrest. The NIA gave this instruction the name Project Avani. At that time the suggestion within the Cabinet was that a ”third force” or ”Boeremag” was behind such unrest.
”I was personally involved in Project Avani. The NIA came to the conclusion that certain groupings had been responsible for instigating such unrest, but that the situation had been aggravated by the dismissal of deputy president Jacob Zuma on June 14 2005, which had given rise to spontaneous public anger.
”The NIA further found that one of the groupings responsible for instigating such unrest [I shall refer to this specific grouping as ‘the group’] had links with a unit within the Scorpions and that such unit within the Scorpions was responsible for selected leaks of information to the media and for the targeting by criminal investigation directed against certain persons.”
According to Masetlha, the persons targeted were those who were seen as rivals of members of ”the group” for appointment to high office or access to lucrative business opportunities.
Masetlha adds that over time he became aware that the group had decided that he should be removed from the NIA because ”I was too powerful, I knew too much, I was too stubborn and I could not be persuaded to join their number”.
Kasrils denies knowing to whom Masetlha is referring.
When Masetlha goes further, implicating Kasrils himself, Kasrils rejects the claim.
Masetlha says that he discussed the matter with Kasrils on August 2 2005. ”I reported to the minister that the efforts to have me removed had intensified. The minister responded that he was aware of these efforts and assured me that he would not be influenced by them. I told the minister that I was aware that the people pushing to have me removed had come up with something about e-mails being manufactured and distributed by me and intended to use these untrue allegations as part of a desperate effort to have me removed,” Masetlha said.
According to Masetlha, he first saw the e-mails when ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe provided him with copies of the messages at a meeting with him and police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi at which Motlanthe asked them to look into the matter.
Masetlha says Motlanthe told him that he obtained the e-mails from businessperson Muzi Kunene, but the IGI investigation into the matter found that Kunene had been contracted by Masetlha to manufacture the e-mails. The IGI also found that the e-mails had been introduced into the workings of Project Avani by Masetlha to divert that project into a surveillance operation that focused on people named in the e-mails, including Macozoma.
Masetlha has since been charged with fraud in relation to the e-mails.
Masetlha says that he informed Mbeki of his concerns about Project Avani and the hoax e-mails in September 2005, saying: ”NIA prepared a counter-intelligence report, which included matters falling under Project Avani for submission to the President.”
Masetlha states that the report included information that:
- there was a need for the president to intervene in the situation;
- the succession struggle for the presidency was complicating the issue;
- there existed groupings instigating the unrest, including a ”group” targeting him;
- a unit within the Scorpions was an instrument of the group;
- that the minister [Kasrils] had associated himself with the group.