Someone is bugging me – Zille

DA mayor of Cape Town Helen Zille complained to Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils on Thursday about the alleged illegal bugging of her private home.

Zille told the Mail & Guardian she was confident of a link between the alleged surveillance and the probe instituted by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool into claims that the DA illegally spied on city councillors. The probe, under Judge Nathan Erasmus, was suspended this week until April after Zille wrote to Rasool to say it was unconstitutional. Her letter hinted at possible legal action.

Zille said her husband, University of Cape Town academic Johann Maree, had picked up their home telephone and heard a tape playing a conversation between Zille and another person. This was one of a series of similar incidents.

‘I’m confident that there’s a link between the city-spy allegations and my house being bugged,” she said. ‘It’s exhausting because I’m not being left alone to do my work. It’s ironic — the ANC accuse me of illegally spying on the council and now I’m spied on.”

Zille said she met Kasrils on Thursday afternoon and that the minister had confirmed that she was not under National Intelligence Agency (NIA) surveillance. ‘He promised to investigate and said it’s possible that I’m under surveillance from rogue elements or private elements in the security industry.”

She added that she thought someone might be following her. ‘I can’t say for sure if people are following me, but there have been a couple of incidences that have left me worried. I’ve given everything to the minister.”

The man at the centre of the Cape Town’s spy saga is Badih Chabaan, a councillor the DA accuses of using illegal methods to encourage defections from the party to an ANC-led alliance during last year’s floor-crossing period.

Despite numerous complaints against him, backed by affidivits, no formal charges have been laid.

Chaaban, president of the National People’s Party, has been under investigation by NIA agents since at least 2004 in connection with alleged money laundering, fraud, human trafficking and murder.

He has also been formally investigated by the South African Police Service’s organised crime unit, which searched his house and seized documents last year.

Chabaan cried foul this week when the Erasmus Commission was suspended. ‘The commission was an opportunity for me to clear my name and now Zille has halted that commission.

‘Every man and mouse in town has investigated me — the DA, George Fivaz and Associates [the agency hired by the city, allegedly to spy on Chabaan], the city, the cops. They’ve all found nothing because I have nothing to hide. All this kak everybody is talking about me is nothing but smear,” he said.

Chaaban, a self-confessed friend of known underworld characters with links to organised crime, said it was his ‘constitutional right to associate with whomever I want to”.

‘It’s not illegal to gamble and I’ve known Mark Liffman, Yurie the Russian and Cyril Beeka for many years, gambling with them. I will not apologise for my association with them — it doesn’t make me a criminal.”

Yurie ‘the Russian” Ulianitski was a known mob boss cut down in hail of bullets in May last year and Liffman is a controversial financier who appeared in court last year charged with child molestation, while security company boss Beeka has been under investigation for alleged mob links for many years.

The alleged city council spy, Phillip du Toit, was subcontracted by George Fivaz and Associates to gather information on whether Chaaban had bribed councillors before the floor-crossing period last year. He handed affidavits and recorded conversations to the police last June.

The M&G was told that Scorpions investigators have given police intelligence gathered about Chaaban’s allegedly illegal activities.

The Erasmus Commission will cost an estimated R7-million. It looks set to continue its work in April, despite the finding of a council-appointed inquiry under Josie Jordaan, released a week ago, that the city did nothing untoward in appointing George Fivaz and Associates to carry out surveillance of councillors in connection with Chaaban’s alleged activities.

A police officer at the SAPS organised crime unit said this week that Chabaan was under investigation. Investigating officer Kenneth Speed, who also arrested Niel van Heerden of Georg Fivaz and Associates in December last year, refused to comment further. However, the M&G understands that Chabaan will not be charged before the Erasmus Commission completes its inquiry.