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Nati
onal prosecutions head Bulelani Ngcuka "probably never" acted
as an agent for the apartheid government, the Hefer Commission of
Inquiry has found.
"I have come to the conclusion that he probably never at any time
before 1994 acted as an agent for a state security agency,"
commission chairperson, retired judge Joos Hefer, said in his final
report made public yesterday.
"... the suspicion which a small number of distrustful individuals
harboured against him 14 years ago was the unfortunate result of
ill-founded inferences and groundless assumptions".
President Thabo Mbeki, in a letter to Hefer, has accepted the
commission's main findings.
The judge made no finding as to whether Ngcuka had abused his
official powers, saying this part of his brief had been cancelled
by the finding that the prosecutions head had probably not been a
spy.
The two legs of the probe had to be linked, Hefer said.
However, he described as "most disturbing" evidence by one of
Ngcuka's main accusers - former transport minister Mac Maharaj -
about leaks from the prosecuting directorate about a criminal
investigation into Maharaj and his wife.
It was beyond doubt that such leaks did occur and it was highly
likely that the guilty party was within Ngcuka's office, Hefer
said.
"Such a state of affairs cannot be tolerated," the report
states.
"Months have elapsed since Mr Maharaj was questioned by members of
the investigating directorate (Scorpions) and, although Ngcuka has
assured me that the investigation has not been completed, no
charges have yet been preferred either against Maharaj or against
his wife.
"In the meantime, press reports about the allegations kept
appearing. In a country such as ours where human dignity is a basic
constitutional value and every person is presumed to be innocent
until he or she is found guilty, this is wholly
unacceptable".
Although matters "do not appear to be what they should be" in
Ngcuka's office, Maharaj's complaint in this regard was beyond the
commission's terms of reference, Hefer said. - Sapa.
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