An internal ANC commission into the so-called hoax email scandal found that former spy boss Billy Masetlha had nothing to do with the fabrication of emails that falsely alleged a plot by senior party members against then deputy president Jacob Zuma.
The commission also found that former president Thabo Mbeki was to blame for the instability in the ANC.
The commission’s findings were revealed for the first time last week in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court during the fraud trial of Masetlha and former National Intelligence Agency (NIA) IT manager Funi Madlala and NIA agent Muzi Kunene.
The three are accused of misusing state resources to produce and distribute false documentation. They have pleaded not guilty.
The ANC’s internal commission was chaired by party stalwart Hermanus Loots. Its final report was rejected by the ANC’s former national executive committee (NEC) under Mbeki and was not made public.
Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils testified last week against Masetlha, Madlala and Kunene. During his cross-examination of Kasrils Masetlha’s advocate, Neil Tuchten, asked the former minister if he knew what had happened to the Loots report.
”I know that the report’s findings were not accepted by the NEC during 2007. It [the report] was presented to the NEC, but rejected.”
Then Tuchten revealed what had long been kept secret by the ANC: ”I put it to you that the first section of the report concluded that no evidence could be found to link Mr Masetlha to the hoax emails.” Kasrils agreed.
Tuchten continued: ”The report further concluded that accused one [Kunene] had the necessary skills and technology to hack into other people’s computers.
”Part two of the report was devoted to the causes of disunity in the ANC. It concluded that the main cause of instability and disunity was the actions of Mr Mbeki.”
Kasrils again agreed, but added that the NEC had rejected the report’s findings.
Magistrate Dawie Jacobs wanted to know from Kasrils if it wasn’t expected that the Mbeki-dominated NEC would reject a report critical of the then president. ”That is a necessary distinction, but one must look at the grounds on which the report was rejected,” Kasrils responded. ”One can find grounds and justifications for almost everything, Mr Kasrils,” Jacobs replied. ”Why was it surprising that the NEC rejected the report?”
Kasrils said that the NEC under Mbeki was not a ”rubber stamp” and would not automatically support its leader. ”On the issue of acceptance [of the report], it was felt that the people interviewed [by the Loots commission] were overwhelmingly people opposed to Mbeki, who had a strong axe to grind with him. We asked the question: who selected these people?”
Kasrils said that the resignation of ANC veteran Josiah Jele from the Loots commission ”because he couldn’t sign the report” also informed the NEC’s rejection of it.
The court heard about South African President Kgalema Motlanthe’s role in the investigation of the hoax emails and the ultimate prosecution of Masetlha, Madlala and Kunene.
Tuchten read from an affidavit given by Motlanthe to the prosecution, explaining how he received the set of emails in a brown envelope in front of his office in the ANC’s Luthuli House in 2006. He was ”shocked and disturbed” after reading the documents, which named senior ANC members as conspirators against Zuma, and called police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi to discuss the matter. Motlanthe also asked Masetlha, who was still director general of the NIA, to attend the meeting.
After the meeting, Motlanthe wrote, Selebi undertook to investigate the matter and Masetlha offered the NIA’s assistance.
Kasrils slated Motlanthe on Thursday for directly engaging Selebi and Masetlha. ”This is the root of the problem in South Africa: the ruling party becomes involved in state functionaries. Kgalema spoke to my DG without my DG informing me what had happened.”
Asked by Jacobs whether Motlanthe was not entitled to lay a charge with the police, Kasrils said this was not like a normal citizen complaining at a police station. ”We are talking about an important political leader calling in state functionaries — We can’t have political parties interfering with the functioning of the state. This is a grave danger.”
The case has been adjourned until January next year.