ANC heavies turn up the heat over hoax e-mails

ANC top brass yesterday began to consider the explosive report on hoax e-mails compiled by Inspector-General of Intelligence Zolile Ngcakani .

The party's National Executive Committee met on the issue, among others, just days after National Intelligence Agency Director-General Billy Masethla was sacked by President Thabo Meki for what a spokesman described as a "breakdown of trust" between Mbeki and Masetlha.

Also yesterday, National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi said those involved in the hoax scandal would be arrested for threatening national security.

The Sunday Times has learnt that the meeting of the ANC's highest decision-making body, in Johannesburg, was also expected to discuss a mooted internal commission of inquiry into the issue.

It is believed that ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe - whose name was mentioned in connection with the e-mails - is behind the push for the party to appoint its own commission.

The e-mails are purportedly a conversation between, among others, chief government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe, former Scorpions boss Bulelani Ngcuka, his wife Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, presidency director Frank Chikane and Ngcuka's successor Vusi Pikoli.

The commission, according to a senior ANC official, would likely be headed by one of the party elders and involve four other party veterans.

Motlanthe is believed to be unimpressed by Ngcakani's official report, and has reportedly insisted that the matter cannot be left with the Cabinet as "the ANC is not a sub-committee of the Cabinet".

Motlanthe's suggestion of an internal inquiry is supported by the party's Youth League, which this week angrily rejected Ngcakani's report "as nothing but a cover-up".

"This is on the basis that both the minister [of Intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils] and inspector-general were implicated in the e-mails and therefore they cannot be referees and players at the same time," said ANCYL spokesman Zizi Kodwa. "The real hoax is the report of the inspector-general."

Kodwa said it was "rather a bizarre coincidence that Masetlha's dismissal coincided with the tabling of the report" and it was hard to believe "that the matters are not related".

Masethla is heavily implicated in Ngcakani's report as the mastermind behind "hoax" e-mails purporting to be communications between senior ANC members seeking to destroy party deputy president Jacob Zuma and Motlanthe's political careers.

A senior ANC leader, however, said Masethla's dismissal would not have any impact on the organisation as it was a government issue.

"Those e-mails were dealt with by Ngcakani. Others might say the party must conduct its own investigation, but it does not mean we must discount what came out of the intelligence process and investigation," said the official.

At the heart of the scandal is Project Avani, a political intelligence analysis of the threats posed by the presidential succession debate and Zuma's impending corruption trial. It was conceived by Masethla shortly after the ANC national general council in July 2005.

He did so without informing his political principal, Kasrils.

Ngcakani's report says the introduction of the alleged intercepted e-mails during August last year seemed to have had a profound impact on Project Avani, introducing an element of conspiracy .

It appeared that the most senior members of Project Avani did not believe the authenticity of the e-mails, but attempts to verify them were "met with the sleight-of-hand, obstructionist tactics of [Masethla]", who wanted the team to believe that they were true, and who, with another member of the NIA, vouched for their authenticity, the report says.

Masethla named Motlanthe as the source of the e-mails "so as to enhance their credibility," it says.

The report says Masethla officially cleared communication from the NIA to Kasrils and to Ngcakani, which basically misrepresented the reasons for placing businessman and ANC NEC member Saki Macozoma under surveillance.

"Macozoma was placed under surveillance as a 'conspirator' identified as part of Project Avani", and not, as the communication claimed, as part of an investigation of his links with a foreign intelligence agent.

It was the discovery of this botched surveillance on Macozoma that triggered Masethla's suspension from the NIA late last year.

In the report, Ngcakani recommends that an internal NIA investigation into the circumstances which resulted in the surveillance operation against Macozoma being compromised be undertaken.

Project Avani illegally intercepted the phone calls of at least 13 members of the public, including senior members of the ANC, the opposition and businessmen.

The law requires that only a judge may grant permission to tap phones.

On the e-mails, the report says both they and what appeared to be genuine chat rooms "were in fact faked mock-ups". A forensic criminologist commissioned by Ngcakani found that authentic e-mails of a very confidential nature were usually in a more cryptic style.

Ngcakani's report also found that the e-mail addresses of alleged perpetrators were nonexistent, and that they contained basic errors, such as mixing up of dates, that suggested the messages had been manipulated.