Publications
Partners
ANC deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte, was allegedly the first party official to approach her comrade, Mathews Phosa, to ask information about Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza.
Phosa told the Northern Gauteng High Court that he had meetings with Duarte at his business offices on September 2 2014 about a whole range of issues “in the context” of general elections and then she asked: “We want to know as the ANC officials that who is this David Mabuza exactly?”
After saying this, there were murmurs from the public gallery, which was packed with Mabuza’s cabinet members, Mpumalanga provincial and regional ANC leaders.
“He’s destroying Jessie Duarte’s political career,” this reporter overheard ANC members whispering among each other. Mabuza smiled at this.
Phosa was on the stand defending himself on a R10-million defamation lawsuit Mabuza has filed against him.
The litigation is based on a purported intelligence report that Phosa emailed to Duarte late in September 2014 about Mabuza’s alleged role as an apartheid government spy.
In short, the report alleged that Mabuza was an apartheid spy code-named PN485 who spied on senior ANC leaders, including President Jacob Zuma, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and the late Albertina Sisulu, between 1985 and 1993.
The report alleged that Mabuza worked with notorious apartheid killers – former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock and security police officer Butana Nofomela.
Phosa has said that he emailed the report to Duarte after it was dropped in an unmarked envelope in his White River house so that the ANC could initiate an investigation into the allegations.
“I regarded the allegations in this report as serious. These allegations, on the face of it, and if proved true, could impact on the integrity of the ANC and the office of the premier and the person of the premier. I was expecting the ANC leadership to investigate each and every allegation in the document,” he told Judge Bill Prinsloo.
Phosa said he telephoned Duarte and asked for a “safe” email address to send the report and within five minutes, Duarte had set it to him. He sent the report from his business associate Nick Elliot’s office.
Phosa said Duarte had already asked her earlier about who Mabuza was. In response, Phosa told the court, he said that he recruited Mabuza to one of the ANC underground cells in the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga).
“I explained to Duarte that Mabuza and I used to work together in the underground structures of the ANC,” Phosa said.
He said that after sending the spy document, he heard nothing from Duarte, but got a call from a journalist while he was on a business trip in Paris, France, telling him they had a document that seemed to say Mabuza wanted to sue him for defamation.
Phosa said he “played stupid” and asked the journalist to send the document to him to read first before responding.
“Interesting enough, the document I received from the journalist had a cover letter from Mculu Attorneys [Mabuza’s lawyer],” he said.
Phosa’s evidence suggests that Mabuza received the spy report and distributed it to the media.
Venter’s evidence is a fabrication
Phosa tore his former house manager Jan Venter’s evidence apart and described him as a “pincher” of money.
Venter finished giving evidence against his former boss yesterday. Venter is now Mabuza’s key witness in the defamation lawsuit against the premier.
The house manager alleged that he saw Phosa and Elliot drafting the spy report before it was sent to Duarte. Venter resigned from Phosa’s employment and then went to Mabuza – to warn him about the spy report because Phosa was “vindictive”.
Later, Venter reconciled with Phosa and alleged that Mabuza’s lawyer, Ian Small-Smith, had paid him to lie about Phosa. He is now in Mabuza’s corner following his disgruntlement with his former boss’ decision to renege on his promise to take care of his family and give him a job.
Venter sold family photos to the media
Phosa alleged that Venter filmed the interior of his palatial Hazyview home and stole family albums after he resigned. Venter, Phosa said, tried to sell the information to the media and he had to apply for a high court interdict. Venter did not oppose Phosa’s application.
