Graft row company can snoop

Africa Strategic Asset Protection (Asap), which faces allegations of corruption arising from its supply of security equipment to Parliament, won part of a highly sensitive contract to supply eavesdropping equipment to state intelligence agencies in 2004.

The deal was to supply ‘packet sniffer” technology, which can intercept and monitor data traffic that enables police and intelligence agencies to snoop on email and internet traffic.

Nelson Mandela’s former chief bodyguard, the late Thobile Mtwazi, and information technology consultant Shane Jacobs, who played a central role in several irregular tenders won by Asap at Parliament and the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, were key figures in winning the contract.

So was Asap boss Jacques du Plessis, who has been under investigation for making improper payments to win both private and public sector contracts.

In November 2004, Jeff Maqetuka, then head of the national intelligence coordinating committee, wrote to Du Plessis on the letterhead of the National Communications Centre, where electronic snooping equipment used by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and South African Police Services’s crime intelligence is housed. He informed Du Plessis of the tender award and introduced him to the project manager, a ‘Mr Robertson”.

In January of that year, Du Plessis had finalised a 40% to 60% joint venture with a former Didata executive, Hank Albertze, and his company, Latitude, to pursue the tender, which had been issued by the department of communications’s Elias Pitso as part of its ‘lawful intercept [programme] to monitor voice and data communication in the country”.

Among the requirements of the programme were ‘internet service provider probes and packet sniffers, data mining, reporting and analysis tools — digitial multimedia recording”.

Du Plessis declined to discuss the project in detail, saying the contract had stringent secrecy provisions, but admitted he had been involved.

‘[Albertze] needed an empower-ment partner, and with Thobile [Mtwazi] I could walk into any minister’s office, or the direcor general’s office,” he told the Mail & Guardian.

Albertze confirmed that Asap had been brought in to help ‘provide the security interface” and an improved empowerment profile.

‘We couldn’t bid because we had no empowerment. We were technical people, and they were security experts.”

Albertze said Shane Jacobs and Mtwazi had made a presentation on the technology that helped Latitude to secure the bid.

‘Mtwazi knew all those [government officials] by name,” Albertze told the M&G.

Other sources familiar with the project confirmed that Mtwazi had played a key facilitating role.

Albertze was reluctant to say more, also citing secrecy provisions in the contract, but he said the contract awarded to Asap and Latitude, worth about R400 000, was a tiny fraction of the much larger R300-million plus tender that went to larger firms such as Siemens.

Concerns have been raised in Parliament over the fact that Asap staff have created ‘backdoor” passwords on the security system installed by the company. Asked whether there was not a risk that the snooping gear had been similarly compromised, Albertze said it was ‘highly unlikely”.

The department of communications referred requests for comment to the NIA. NIA spokesperson Lorna Daniels declined to comment.

‘If Thobile’s connections were so good, he didn’t deliver all that much,” Albertze said. Mtwazi, however, was already ill when negotiations around the deal began. He died in May 2004, before they were concluded.

Inquiry not yet ‘declared’

There is no clarity yet on the outcome of a process launched by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, to restore the ‘integrity” of security at Parliament following allegations of corruption in the awarding of contracts to Africa Strategic Asset Protection (Asap).

People close to the process, however, said a decision was expected within the next fortnight about how to take the investigation into the company forward.

Freedom Front Plus MP Corné Mulder has asked the Scorpions and Public Protector to look into the allegations.

The Mail & Guardian reported last month that Russel Christopher, who was special adviser on intelligence and security to the previous Speaker, Frene Ginwala, had received large payments from Asap following the award of a R32,5-million access control tender, and that other tenders involving Asap across the state system also appeared questionable.

It seems the Scorpions had earlier this year conducted an informal intelligence assessment of the allegations against Asap, but had not yet decided to bring their full powers to bear by the time a public storm broke over the claims.

Several sources said they had provided information to investigators from the unit, but its Western Cape chief, Adrian Mopp, told Independent Newspapers last month that no ‘formal investigation” was under way.

That strongly suggests that, while Scorpions officials were building an initial case against Asap, Mopp had not yet taken the crucial legal step known in the jargon of the National Prosecuting Authority as ‘declaring a project”. Declaration is necessary before investigators can push ahead with more aggressive evidence gathering such as search and seizure operations.

It is also not clear, however, whether the investigation will remain with the NPA. The South African Police Service’s protection division bears the primary responsibility for security at the legislature, and there is considerable anger within the police over what are perceived as security weaknesses caused by Asap’s approach to the maintenance of security infrastructure. — Nic Dawes