The Special Browse is classic NPA

It is difficult to believe Pikoli

7 June 2007

This edition of The Bottomline is a hoax. Foreign Intelligence and elements of Stratcom created everything you read here. Do not believe the entire content of this document. Do not read beyond this point. The intention of this edition of The Bottomline is to create confusion and sow divisions amongst political organisations. We are going to investigate who the authors of this edition of The Bottomline are and what their intentions are. This is not the first time that we receive The Bottomline, and similar issues such as these were written in the past and the only conclusion we could arrive at is that they are a hoax. Everything is a hoax. You are a hoax.

 

So said the jesters from the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA), the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and The Presidency yesterday as they predictably dismissed the report and committed themselves to an investigation (which is already going on) to get to the bottom of the latest edition of yet another "hoax" publication.

 

The problem with the Special Browse is that whether it is a hoax or real, it poses real dangers to our society and our security system. It further casts doubt on the credibility of our intelligence structures in the form of the DSO and the NIA.

 

In brief, the Special Browse raises the following issues:

 

• That the Deputy President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma, together with the SACP, COSATU, YCLSA and ANCYL are preparing for a "street level revolution" to oust the President of the ANC. Although the idea is tempting, the observation is wrong.
• That Jacob Zuma is being aided by foreign countries, namely Libya, Angola and others through intelligence work and financial resources.
• That Jacob Zuma is laundering money by creating companies or using other legitimately created institutions to launder money for purposes of this street level revolution.
• That Blade Nzimande has facilitated a meeting between Jacob Zuma and Mummar Gadaffi of Libya, which resulted to an amount of between three and five million dollars being transacted between the two.
• That the call by our organisation for an inquest on the assassination of the former General Secretary of the SACP, Chris Hani, is mainly targeted at blaming the President of the country for this assassination.

 

The Special browse goes further to request a mandate for further investigations and possible prosecutions towards Jacob Zuma. The report purports to be sent to the Presidency, the NIA, the NPA and the Ministry of Justice.

 

The report clearly reaches wrong conclusions, which are based on factual incidents that happened or are happening.

The information contained in the form of a Special Browse shows that the NPA and DSO in particular cannot be trusted. It further shows that those who are in power run the risk of relying on false intelligence in order to determine what action should be taken. But also, the essence of the Special Browse is that there IS a conspiracy against Jacob Zuma.

 

What is more disturbing is that when SADTU and COSATU complained that an agent of the NIA paid a visit to one of the union leaders in the Northern Cape, the spokesperson to the Minister of Intelligence was quoted as saying that there are people going around impersonating agents of intelligence.

There are some interesting statements made at the press conference yesterday which we want to take issue with.

 

Firstly, the Intelligence institutions are claiming not to know who the author of the report is. This clearly shows that someone has impersonated intelligence official (whether from the DSO or NIA) and crafted this report. It is a reflection of a serious danger for our society and yet another sign of weakness in our intelligence institutions.

 

Secondly, we need to question whether indeed the state intelligence institutions were going to investigate the Special Browse had COSATU not sent the report to the head of the NPA since they claim to have received a similar (if not the same) report sometime last year. Is the investigation as a result of the calls made by the SACP, COSATU, ANC and the Progressive Youth Alliance? If the investigation is as a result of public pressure, which seems to be the case, should we confidently believe that it will be executed without fear, favor and with zeal that will yield results which will give the individuals mentioned and the whole nation hope that indeed this was a hoax? As a matter of fact we are still not sure as a nation if the emails are a hoax.

 

It remains the responsibility of the NPA and other intelligence institutions to ensure that individuals and organisations are not allowed space to sow divisions within society. The allegations contained in the report could not have easily been dismissed as a hoax without going deeper into why such a hoax was drafted, circulated and planted so as it receives the attention it getting now. The seriousness of the allegations, whether wrong or right, deserved more urgent attention from the NPA sooner rather than this late.

 

The Press Briefing yesterday seemed merely as calming the storm and performing a usual public relations parade rather than genuinely getting into the gist of the matters. The briefing was merely about irritation that the Special Browse is now in the public domain, and the ultimate culprits may be those who brought it into the open rather than those who authored it. This is a worrying factor indeed.

 

Thirdly, senior political leaders of the ANC, SACP and COSATU together with leaders of the MDM and of foreign countries are implicated in the report. The intelligence structures are not bound to account to any of these individuals or organisations, however, we contend, given the "poisoned political situation", that it was their responsibility to brief the relevant organisations or individuals. The fact that the NPA remained silent with this information cast aspersions and suspicions on the credibility of the NPA and its commitment towards calming the poisoned political situation.

 

Lastly, it is hard to believe that this is the work of elements of Stratcom and foreign intelligence involved in the writing of this report without the veto or involvement of the NPA due to its conduct in the past on matters relating to the Deputy President of the ANC.

 

Nevertheless, even if we were to believe this version, it is quite worrying that 13 years down the line, there are still elements of the old order who can conduct political intelligence and succeed in creating suspicion and confusion in our ranks. The challenge posed by our transition is that elements of the Apartheid intelligence remained involved in the construction of a new society and this clearly gave them an opportunity to destabilize our democracy as well as South Africa's foreign relations and international standing.

 

This begs the question whether we have done enough in transforming the state machinery to ensure that it is not used to derail our hard-won democracy? Have we rooted out the Apartheid infestation whose main and new mandate is to click refresh on the button of national oppression? Can we trust the intelligence community to protect us from yet another version or edition of hoax? Will we truly find the culprits in this hoax saga?

 

Some of the reported issues that emanated from the Khampepe Commission was the fact that the NPA relied mainly on elements of the Apartheid order to investigate and prosecute certain individuals. This was clearly demonstrated by the use of Security's Branch Specialists such as General Krappies Engelbrecht during the Scorpions infamous raids on Zuma and his associates in August 2005. Some of these issues included the fact that the NPA was a law unto themselves, conducting investigations, prosecution and sometimes passing on judgment on the accused. A more worrying outcome of the Khampepe Commission is that the NPA's pseudo-intelligence operations are not subject to any oversight as is the case with the agencies. These issues have not been addressed. This is clearly a failure of the state in ensuring that we fully understand and take forward the recommendations from that Commission. It is time now that we call on the Khampepe Commission's report to be released in public.

 

We are concerned that the response of the state has been knee-jerk, and has at all times not been decisive and that one cannot help but be suspicious that the aim is to deflect attention from themselves as part of this conspiracy. This brings to question the credibility of the state in its role towards protecting its citizens.

 

A number of conclusions can be easily made from the above observations.

Has the manner in which the Deputy President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma, been treated by the NPA and the DSO not given a platform for foreign and destructive elements to seek to further divide the movement? Put differently, has the NPA not made itself an instrument of a series of hoaxes purporting to come from within given the leaks that have been there, but also the mafia, para-military and Hollywood style that it has conducted itself towards the Deputy President? Is there a case against the Deputy President or is it yet another hoax?

 

Has the NPA not made itself party to, by commission or omission, a conspiracy to trample on the rights of the Deputy President of the ANC? Are we as a country capable of going to sleep safe and sound when we know that the intelligence institutions are incapable of protecting us from individuals who can easily impersonate its agents, draft Special Browse which could trigger us to the point of a civil war?

 

The other question that we need to ask is whether are we right to conclude that the allegations of an attempted assassination are a hoax and the result of a paid hobo? To what extent are these elements that are capable of driving the country to the point of chaos not even tinkering with the idea of assassinating Jacob Zuma?

 

Even if the report is a hoax, and the NPA was never involved in its drafting, it will still be difficult to excuse them (the NPA) from such a report as they have exceeded the boundaries of behaving in a just and credible manner in the past. Concocting outlandish claims and then leaking them to the media seems to be the modus operandi at Silverton. The Special Browse is classical of the NPA it is difficult to believe its director, Vusi Pikoli when he was denouncing its content and intentions. I also doubt if the NPA would have come up in the public and acknowledged that they are involved in such work as contained in the Special Browse. In most cases, the NPA has only responded to such matters through public pressure. Whether the NPA is capable of investigating its own involved in this Special Browse is something else, but the key question is whether will we ever believe what comes out of the investigations.

 

That's the Bottomline, cos the YCL said so!

 

All Power to the Youth! Amandla Ngawethu! Matla ke a rona!

 

Buti Manamela