The Office of the Inspector General of Intelligence (OIGI) has given ”grossly inadequate reasons” for dismissing a probe into allegations that former president Thabo Mbeki’s phone was tapped, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday.
DA spokesperson Ian Davidson said it was ”simply not good enough” for the Inspector General of Intelligence, Zola Ngcakani, to ”sit on his hands and wait for evidence to be brought to him”.
Last week the DA called for an investigation after information surfaced that state intelligence agencies had recorded calls between Mbeki, while he was still in office, and, among others, the former head of the Scorpions, Leonard McCarthy.
Davidson said the former National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka had confirmed that telephone conversations had been ”monitored and intercepted” by a state agency.
He said the DA would write again to Ngcakani, particularly regarding his claim that ”no evidence of these allegations has been made available”.
”If there is any credible evidence that phone tapping has taken place without the approval of a high court judge, then that is an illegal invasion of someone’s privacy.
”If all reports, together with the testimony of a former NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] boss are insufficient to invoke an investigation by the inspector-general’s office, then it is questionable,” he said.
The OIGI on Monday dismissed calls for a probe into the so-called Mbekigate tapes.
”Allegations of the interception and monitoring of the communications of senior officials apparently discussing the Zuma case have not been confirmed and no evidence of these allegations have been made available to the office of the Inspector General,” OIGI chief director Imtiaz Fazel said on Monday.
The tapes allegedly included a statement by McCarthy suggesting that Mbeki influenced the decision to prosecute his political rival, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma.
The OIGI said it would continue to monitor the issue and would institute a probe if there was a reason to do so.
The NPA has not confirmed the existence of the tapes. — Sapa