Cape Town – The man who investigated an alleged plot to assassinate former president Nelson Mandela at his 1994 inauguration, told the Western Cape High Court the probe was deliberately quashed by top police officers, even after the weapon that would have apparently been used to murder Madiba was found.
Tuesday will be Major-General Andre Lincoln’s second day on the stand in his multimillion-rand civil lawsuit that is set to reveal alleged roles former presidents, high-ranking politicians and gangsters played in what Lincoln calls a “malicious prosecution” against him. Lincoln headed the presidential investigation task unit which was set up by Mandela in 1996.
He is suing the then minister of safety and security and the minister of justice and constitutional development for R15 million in damages. Lincoln was sentenced to nine years in prison after he was found guilty on 17 of the 47 counts of fraud against him at the time. He was eventually granted leave to appeal by Judge Jeannette Traverso and was later exonerated.
Last year, Lincoln approached the court to force the ministers to compensate him for damages suffered when he was convicted and lost his job.
Andre Lincoln File picture: Brenton Geach/Independent Media
However, the ministers have raised a special plea denying liability and capacity to be sued as defendants in the matter. In court papers, Lincoln said he was mandated by Mandela to probe alleged irregular conduct of senior police officers in the province.
The task team had to investigate the activities of Vito Palazzolo, an alleged Italian Mafia boss living in the province at the time and now jailed in Italy. Part of Mandela’s instruction to then national police commissioner George Fivaz was that Lincoln, a former underground ANC operative, would report directly to the president with no interference from top management of the police.
However, Lincoln claims in court papers, provincial police top brass tried to sabotage the investigation and Fivaz, in turn, ordered a “malicious prosecution” against him.
Part of the evidence likely to be put before the court relates to a probe into a covert police operation, Project Donna, involving the printing of counterfeit money and how information about this was provided to then minister of safety and security Sydney Mufamadi, and then deputy president Thabo Mbeki.
Some of the officers involved in this “project” were said to have been linked to a plot to assassinate Mandela at his inauguration at the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1994.
The case continues.