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Johannesburg - National intelligence agency staff were on the verge of spying on Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon when their plot was revealed.

The NIA, under the leadership of Billy Masetlha, also paid an agent to create false e-mails to make it seem as if there was a plot against Jacob Zuma.

These were the findings of the inspector-general of intelligence (IGI), Zolile Ngcakani, and his investigating team as stated in his report on the illegal espionage on Saki Macozoma.

Included in the report was the nature of the so-called Project Avani and the creation of false e-mails.

The report has been handed to President Thabo Mbeki.

Mbeki fired Masetlha on Wednesday, saying the relationship of trust between them had broken down.

Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils told a media conference on Thursday the surveillance on Macozoma was unauthorised.

The IGI's investigation found that the spying on Macozoma, a millionaire businessman and influential African National Congress member, and the creation of false e-mails formed part of Project Avani.

Had a 'profound' impact

Masetlha initiated the project to investigate whether the presidential succession debate held any danger for the country's safety.

He did so without Kasrils' knowledge.

The political dynamics within the ANC and other parties formed part of the intelligence collected by members of Project Avani.

The hoax e-mails, which were created by an NIA agent, according to the IGI, had a "profound" impact on Project Avani.

The report referred to IT specialist Vusi Kunene as an NIA agent.

According to the IGI report, senior NIA members didn't want to simply accept the e-mails as true, but Masetlha used obstruction techniques to prevent their authenticity being questioned.

13 people's phones 'tapped'

Ngcakani's investigation also found that at least three civilians had been spied on, and that the telephone conversations of at least 13 people had been listened to.

Government communications head Joel Netshitenzhe said at a news conference that court cases might follow from the report.

Ngcakani said the civilians were Macozoma and a former journalist - probably former Mail & Guardian editor Anton Harber, who is now a professor of journalism at Wits and who was spied on for a week.

The third was the Democratic Alliance leader, who was not actually spied on, because "he was not where he should have been when the espionage was supposed to commence".

'A crisis of confidence'

Kasrils, who was criticised for pronouncing the e-mails to be "a hoax" before Ngcakani's investigation was complete, said the political situation at the time made him fearful of a crisis.

"It would have been a crisis of confidence in the government of this country, in its intelligence service and that crisis would have been reflected internationally.

"I was horrified, which is why I made the statement I made," he said.

Ngcakani said: "Based on our evaluation of the veracity of the content of the e-mails - together with our evaluation of the technical feasibility of them being intercepted products, in our opinion the allegedly intercepted emails and chat rooms were, in fact, mock-ups that sought to resemble the online communication of 'targets selected for interception'."

Ngcakani said Project Avani was legitimate.

A legitimate mandate

"It was to access the impact of political dynamics unfolding in the country, on national stability, which is a job the NIA must do," he said.

"It was then used by those injecting e-mail into it to influence and manipulate and manufacture intelligence," he said.

Kasrils said the NIA was allowed to gather political intelligence where there was a legitimate mandate.

"That kind of exploration is not to be intrusive - it becomes illegal when it's intrusive and where that intrusion was not properly authorised."

He said it would be wrong to say that the investigation and issues involved only the ANC.

"These e-mails affect the whole rule of law, constitution and rights of people.

"They were invasive not only of ANC authors, but also eminent former journalists (Anton Harber), the leader of the opposition (Tony Leon) and public servants whose dignity and privacy has been attacked," said Kasrils.

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Cape Town - The Independent Democrats would not consider, nor take part in, a vote of no confidence against Cape Town mayor-elect Helen Zille, said party leader Patricia de Lille on Wednesday.

As a midnight deadline loomed on an offer from the Democratic Alliance to join the city's multiparty mayoral system, De Lille said the ID was still in talks with the DA and the African National Congress.

These were about changing the existing mayoral committee system to a collective executive committee system, she told reporters at parliament.

"We still believe that to bridge the divides of the past and unite Cape Town, both the ANC and the DA must be part of the city government."

De Lille said that if the discussions proved fruitless, the ID would launch a motion in the council to change the system.

This would be done as soon as possible and the ID did not have the ANC's support on this.

ID wants system changed

The DA said earlier it had offered the ID up to two seats on the executive mayoral committee.

De Lille said her party had considered the offer, and would meet the DA later on Wednesday.

But, the ID would not accept the seats if the system did not change.

"For us, it is not either or. We want the collective executive committee system. The offer from the DA at the moment is two seats inside the old system.

"We don't want the two seats in the existing... system."

If the ID had not reached a decision by midnight, the DA would be "free to continue to do whatever they need to do", said De Lille.

Will remain in opposition

The ID, she added, accepted that Zille had been democratically elected. The ID had backed ANC candidate Nomaindia Mfeketo for the post.

De Lille said: "We will not consider, nor participate in, a motion of no confidence in the mayor."

"If the ANC as a party wants to pursue a motion of no confidence, they are perfectly free to do so."

If all negotiations failed, the ID would remain in opposition and consider everything before the council on an "issue-by-issue" basis, she said.

De Lille insisted that the ID had not lied nor betrayed its voters.

"We have refused to enter into any coalition with any political party," she said.

"That vote for ANC (on the mayorship) was an isolated vote for that particular issue.

'Goodbye and goodnight'

"Everything else that will follow, the ID will consider on an issue-by-issue basis."

DA MP Ryan Coetzee predicted the ID would be destroyed if it opted not to join a DA-led coalition of smaller parties in the Cape Town metro council.

"Then it's goodbye and goodnight to the ID," he told reporters in Cape Town.

Coetzee, a member of the DA's negotiating team making overtures to the ID, said the DA had learnt that the ID was talking to the ANC.

When the ID proposed an amendment to the system of governance, it became clear the party was working with the ANC to "bring this (city) government down", he added.

James Selfe, chairman of the DA's federal council, produced a letter explaining to De Lille why her proposal was rejected.

"We are honour-bound to uphold our agreement with our partners in government.

"A conversion to an executive committee system would mean that they would no longer form part of the government of Cape Town," he read from the document.

Selfe said it was the view of the DA and smaller parties like the African Christian Democratic Party, the United Democratic Party and Universal Party, that the city government had been legitimately constituted.

Don't want ongoing changes

"...and the voters of Cape Town expect stability and delivery.

"They do not want to see the city government destabilised or subject to ongoing changes of composition and direction."

Asked how well the coalition, which saw Zille taking the mayoral chain by a slender three votes, would hold up to a motion of no-confidence, Zille said: "We have full confidence in our coalition partners". "There is no reason to doubt their commitment," she said.

If the ID did not respond by midnight, the DA and its partners would announce a mayoral executive committee at 10:00 on Thursday.

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Cape Town - The Independent Democrats (ID) has still not made a decision on the Democratic Alliance (DA) offer of a share in the government of the city of Cape Town, ID spokesperson Mervyn Cirota said on Tuesday night.

He said ID and DA negotiators met on Monday, and on Tuesday reported back to their principals on "issues" that arose during those discussions.

"We should have some answer for you at 10:00 tomorrow morning," he said. "We are still busy with it."

DA spokesperson Ryan Coetzee said: "We obviously are in discussion with them. We're waiting for them to come back to us, which will be tomorrow."

He said the two sides' negotiators didn't meet on Tuesday but there had been contact by phone.

The city's newly-elected DA mayor Helen Zille wants to name her executive committee by Thursday at latest. The committee can consist of up to ten members, excluding the mayor and her deputy.

The DA offer was made despite the ID's backing of the African National Congress (ANC) in last week's mayoral election, which Zille won by a three-vote margin thanks to the support of the African Christian Democratic Party and other smaller parties.

Councillors facing intimidation will be afforded VIP protection

Zille announced on Tuesday she'd ensure VIP protection for city councillors who had been threatened or intimidated for not supporting the ANC in last week's vote.

She had asked City Police chief Bongani Jonas to immediately restore to the council's support division control of its VIP protection unit - which presently falls under the City Police.

"Councillors facing intimidation will be afforded the VIP protection to which they are entitled under law. It is not clear why the unit was removed from council support by former mayor (Nomaindia) Mfeketo just days before the election," she said.

It had come to her attention that certain councillors had been threatened and intimidated for their decision not to support the ANC.

"Intimidation, which amounts to political thuggery, is a serious threat to our democracy," she said.

Zille also said she had instructed city manager Wallace Mgoqi to immediately freeze any conversions of council contract posts to permanent positions, pending an audit.

"We need to be sure that any posts that are made permanent are for valid reasons, not attempts to secure positions as rewards to ANC loyalists at taxpayers' expense."



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Pretoria - Two of three armed men who had robbed a cellphone shop in the Pretoria city centre escaped from a car crash while attempting to evade police on Wednesday morning.

"About 09:00 this morning (Wednesday) three armed men robbed the Q and A cellular phone shop on the corner of Vermeulen and Andries streets in the CBD. One of the men saw a metro police officer outside the shop writing tickets and fired at him," said police spokesperson Inspector Paul Ramaloko.

The metro officer took cover and called for back-up, after which police and security guards in the vicinity gave chase and caught the man.

A cellphone, an undisclosed amount of cash and a pistol with the serial number filed off were confiscated.

"The two men left in the store ran out when they saw the police intervention outside. They jumped into the Toyota Venture of a military sergeant who happened to have stopped at the corner of Vermeulen and Andries," Ramaloko said.

The men instructed the sergeant at gunpoint to drive away from the scene.

"At the corner of Vermeulen and Van der Walt the robot was red for the Venture but the two gunmen told the sergeant to drive through.

"The sergeant did so and the car was hit by a vehicle and it overturned with the three in it."

The two armed men emerged from the wreck and ran away.

Ramaloko said the sergeant escaped with minor injuries but was in a state of shock when police spoke to him.

The metro police officer also escaped with minor injuries he sustained while taking cover and was taken to a local hospital.

The two remaining armed men are still at large.

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Vanderbijlpark - South Africa is a water-poor country, but, even today, whites don't care about it.

Nor did they care about it before 1994, said Professor Dennis Goldberg, adviser to Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica, on Monday at the South Gauteng water summit held in Vanderbijlpark.

Goldberg, who read out Sonjica's speech, deviated from it and said South Africa was one of the 30 driest countries in the world.

He added that although white people did not care how much water they used, the government did and was doing everything in its power to set matters right.

Altogether 40% of the water bought from Rand Water in southern Gauteng, was wasted - "It amounts to millions of rands."

Goldberg also lashed out at local authorities and said the present rate at which rivers in the country were being polluted by sewage had to be stopped.

"We can't go on like this," he said.

"Sorry" if he had been misunderstood

"It's as though we're transfixed in the headlights of an oncoming car. We don't know what to do."

During a tea break, Goldberg agreed when asked by Beeld if he really had meant white people didn't care about water.

Later, however, he said he "actually" meant rich people wasted water.

He said he might have been misunderstood and that he was "sorry" if this was the case.

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