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Polity
Article by: Sapa Published: 01 Feb 2010
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| Zuma spy tapes not on agenda yet | |
| The much-awaited report on the leaking of spy tapes to President Jacob Zuma's lawyer will not be seen by Parliament's oversight intelligence committee for weeks to come, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. DA Member of Parliament (MP) Theo Coetzee, a member of Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI), said media reports that the document compiled by former inspector-general of intelligence Zolile Ngcakani would be discussed at a sitting in Pretoria on Monday were wrong. "There was a big misunderstanding. That report is in Cape Town and it has not been opened yet," Coetzee said. He added that JSCI chairperson Cecil Burgess received it on December 30, but said the committee needed to be briefed on it by Ngcakani. "We want him to explain to us what he did," Coetzee said. He said the report would also have to be discussed with the incoming inspector-general of intelligence, whose appointment has yet to be confirmed by Parliament, something only likely to happen after the budget is tabled on February 17. Ngcakani's report is expected to examine how secret recordings of phone conversations between former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy and former national prosecutions chief Bulelani Ngcuka came into the hands of Zuma's lawyer Michael Hulley. The National Prosecuting Authority withdrew fraud and corruption charges against Zuma on the eve of the elections last year, citing the tapes as cause to suspect political interference in the case and paving the way for him to become President. The Cape Times on Monday quoted Burgess as saying that it was not up to the committee to decide whether to make Ngcakani's report public "unless there is something in the report that we feel needs to be made public". He said if this were the case, the JSCI would first have to consult Zuma to see whether anything in the report compromised State security. But UCT researcher Laurie Nathan disputed this, saying that the JSCI was not accountable to the President but to Parliament. He argued that the report should be made public as it would clear up the mystery as to who broke the law by passing the tapes to Hulley. Coetzee said the DA planned to press for the report to be discussed as soon as possible. "It is an urgent matter." |
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