Trade union federation Cosatu believes the ‘Special Browse Mole Consolidated Reportâ€, implicating Jacob Zuma in a plot to overthrow President Thabo Mbeki, was engineered by National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (Scorpions) operatives as part of a conspiracy to stymie Zuma’s presidential ambitions.
At a media conference yesterday Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi rejected the finding announced this week by National Intelligence Agency Director General Manala Manzini, National Prosecuting Authority boss Vusi Pikoli and Barry Gilder of the National Intelligence Agency’s coordinating committee that the report’s author had interwoven disinformation with fact.
The government was still investigating the source of the report, Manzini told a media briefing at the Union Buildings this week. But he added that similar documents, which surfaced in the Nineties, had been written by apartheid intelligence operatives.
The dossier claimed that Angola’s president, Jose dos Santos, and Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi were financing a Zuma coup plot.
Manzini said: ‘Our information does not suggest that [African] heads of state and their intelligence operatives sought to stage a military coup against the South African government.â€
The dossier’s statement that Dos Santos had sacked the chief of Angola’s external intelligence service, General Fernando Mlala, was true, he said. What was not true was that Mlala was sacked because he had aligned himself with ANC businessperson Tokyo Sexwale instead of investigating how the Angolans could assist Zuma.
Vavi insisted that there was substance to most of the dossier’s claims and that he did not believe Pikoli had been objective in investigating its source. The finding that it was a hoax was consistent with other findings on similar issues, including the ‘hoax emails†and claims of an assassination plot against Zuma.
Sources close to Zuma said this week that it was incorrect to suggest Zuma was criss-crossing the continent in search of funds and that African leaders had, in fact, approached him.
‘The truth is that some African leaders believe the Mbeki government’s policy in Africa has undermined their authority. They now believe Zuma would come up with a more inclusive approach to Africa’s ills and have indicated their readiness to assist him.â€
However, the Mail & Guardian has heard repeated reports of Zuma’s efforts to build support in Africa, and of the sympathetic response he has received in various countries where the leaders oppose Mbeki and his continental policies.