Cabals, conspiracies exposed

INTELLIGENCE reports have been used to fight political battles in the ANC and to discredit party leaders since the 1990s.

A former South African National Defence Force chief, General George Meiring, submitted a report compiled by "military intelligence" to then president Nelson Mandela in 1998 alleging that former Umkhonto weSizwe chief of staff Siphiwe Nyanda and other prominent ANC leaders were plotting to overthrow the government.

The Meiring report alleged that the plot included the assassination of Mandela, the murder of judges and the forcible occupation of parliament. A commission headed by then chief justice Ismail Mohamed dismissed the report, which had been compiled by a discredited military intelligence informer.

In 2001, then safety and security minister Steve Tshwete went on national TV and claimed that ANC leaders Tokyo Sexwale, Mathews Phosa and Cyril Ramaphosa had been planning to assassinate then president Thabo Mbeki.

Tshwete's allegations were based on an "intelligence report" that was put together by former ANC Youth League leader James Nkambule. The report was later rejected as an unsubstantiated rumour.

In 2005, the National Intelligence Agency was at the centre of a hoax e-mail saga. The e-mails alleged that there was a conspiracy led by a "Xhosa faction" in the government and ANC that wanted to destroy then deputy president Jacob Zuma, calling him a "Zulu boy".

Two leading ANC members at the time, Bulelani Ngcuka and Saki Macozoma, were implicated in the saga. The then inspector-general of intelligence, Zolile Ngcakani, found the e-mails to be false and dismissed them as the work of conspirators.

Two years later, the Browse Mole report surfaced, claiming that Zuma was being bankrolled by Libyan and Angolan leaders to unseat Mbeki. Reports at the time said it was first leaked to Cosatu by an anonymous fax.

The report was dismissed after an investigation by parliament's intelligence committee, which said it had been compiled illegally by the now disbanded Directorate of Special Operations, which had fallen "prey to information peddlers".

Then, in 2011, during the run-up to the ANC's elective conference, the "ground coverage intelligence report" came to light. Compiled by then suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli, it claimed that ANC leaders Zweli Mkhize, Sexwale and Paul Mashatile were planning to topple Zuma.

Everyone denied being part of the plot and Mkhize went on to be elected as the ANC's new treasurer-general .