Hawks tapped our reporter's phone

Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi Wa Afrika, who was arrested and detained after exposing the police lease scandal, had his phone calls intercepted by the Hawks, the inspector-general of intelligence has confirmed.

Wa Afrika was arrested last August within days of the paper publishing a story on a proposed R500-million lease deal to move the police offices in Pretoria. He was detained for two days, denied access to lawyers and questioned about his political affiliations before the charges were found to be without merit and dropped.

The Inspector-General of Intelligence, Faith Radebe, this week confirmed his calls were intercepted.

She said: "As part of a lawful investigative method, an interception direction in terms of the Rica (Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act) was approved by the designated judge in respect of [Wa Afrika] pertaining to the allegations of crime, and not for the reason that he is a journalist."

The Sunday Times asked Radebe in July to probe harassment and intimidation - including death threats - against Wa Afrika and his colleague Stephan Hofstatter.

At the time several police officers and members of the intelligence community warned the two that their movements and calls were being monitored.

The Sunday Times immediately stepped up security around Wa Afrika and Hofstatter to secure their safety and communication with sources.

Sunday Times editor Ray Hartley said the paper was confident it had protected the confidentiality of its sources but "the treatment of our reporter has been appalling".

"It is abundantly clear that the criminal justice system has been abused to harass and intimidate him," Hartley said. "The judge who authorised this 'surveillance', and the police officers who requested it, should hang their heads in shame. They are complicit in an assault on our constitutional values."

In a sworn statement in July, Wa Afrika detailed a series of incidents, including having a gun pointed at him in December last year and being forced off the road by two cars in April.

He received a tip-off in December that he was "a marked man" and that hitmen may have been hired to kill him.

Wa Afrika said: "I was warned that I must not drive alone at night, that my killers would be wearing SAPS uniforms and that my murder would be made to look as though I was trying to escape from the police."

The following day he was pulled off the road by two men in police uniform. He was dragged out through the car window by one of the men who pointed a firearm at his forehead.

"As soon as the (assailant) realised I had a passenger in the car, he pushed me to the ground and they ran to their car and drove off at high speed."

Wa Afrika said in April a white Volvo 4x4 and a black Mazda 3 tried to force him off the road near his Johannesburg office.

Radebe said in her progress report that Wa Afrika was the subject of an investigation by the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations, also known as the Hawks, in a yet to be disclosed criminal investigation. She said Wa Afrika's e-mails were not monitored.

Her investigation has only been finalised in respect of the Hawks and crime intelligence. She will continue to probe whether other state agencies, or independent contractors working for state agencies, have been involved in monitoring or threatening the journalists.

In a response on September 22 to the paper's lawyer Eric van den Berg, Radebe denied Wa Afrika was investigated because of the exposés he has written about high-profile South Africans.

Radebe said she would notify the newspaper once the investigation was finalised.

Wa Afrika and Hofstatter have written about high-profile individuals including President Jacob Zuma's son, Duduzane Zuma; the premier of Mpumalanga, David Mabuza; prominent businessman Rajesh Gupta; and Sicelo Shiceka, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

In addition, their series of exposés on two police lease deals in Pretoria and Durban, totaling R1.7-billion, led to the public protector deeming the contracts unlawful.

Zuma has also asked the national police commissioner, General Bheki Cele, to provide reasons why he should not be suspended.

The story earned the journalists several awards.

Radebe was asked by the Sunday Times to probe:

• Whether intelligence agencies are aware of a plan or plans to murder or harm either reporter;

• If so, what steps had been taken on the reporters' behalf; and,

• Whether there are files on Wa Afrika and Hofstatter.

The newspaper maintained that its rights had been infringed and that state resources appeared to have been abused. This week Van den Berg, in response to Radebe's letter, asked her the following:

• What Wa Afrika was being investigated for;

• The docket number for the case and who is, or was, investigating it; and

• Whether the investigation was ever completed.

In July Wa Afrika filed a civil action against the police claiming damages for wrongful arrest. The police have filed notice of intention to defend the matter.