Cape Town - The ANC says it will file a criminal complaint against Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, and has called on her to resign after it emerged that the provincial government had hired a senior police crime intelligence officer in his private capacity to “debug” cellphones in her department.
Paul Scheepers, a captain in the SAPS, was arrested on May 8 in a raid on his private business in Southfield and on his office at the police’s provincial intelligence unit in Bishop Lavis. Charged with fraud, perjury and violating the Electronic Communications Act, Scheepers was released on R20 000 bail.
He has now applied to the Western Cape High Court for the return of electronic equipment confiscated in the raids.
The matter is to be heard on November 20.
According to the Weekend Argus, Scheepers’s company, Eagle Eye Solution Technologies, had been hired by Zille’s office in May 2010 for a sum of R115 800.
ANC Western Cape chairperson Marius Fransman was “shocked” at the news Scheepers had worked for the provincial government.
Fransman said Zille’s defence of Scheepers, and claims that senior police officials were working with criminals to destabilise the province, made sense because she was familiar with his work.
In her newsletter last week, Zille said the ANC’s criticism of her, and claims that Scheepers had been a spy for the provincial government, was ridiculous. “It is an absolute falsehood and there can be nothing more outrageous than this claim.
“We reject this claim in its entirety. Mr Fransman’s wild claims are nothing but an attempt to deflect from the real issue – serious allegations due before a court on 20 November of links between the drug trade, gangs and politics in the Western Cape.”
Claims the DA used covert means to spy on opponents led to then premier Ebrahim Rasool establishing the Erasmus Commission in December 2007. This came after claims that then Cape Town councillor Badih Chaaban, who had been trying to launch a coup against the then DA-led ruling coalition, was being spied upon.
Zille challenged the grounds for Rasool’s appointment of the Erasmus Commission, which in 2008 was ruled illegal by the Constitutional Court.
In court papers, Scheepers stated his problems started months after informants had told him a senior police officer in the Western Cape regularly met with underworld figures.
But Fransman said: “When this person (Scheepers) was charged by SAPS, she (Zille) decided to pick him out and side with him against the whole SAPS and the (police) ministry. At that moment it was clear to us there is much more than (meets) the eye.”
Zille spokesperson Michael Mpofu said she had not known Scheepers.
“The premier does not manage tenders of such a nature (and) is not involved in the procurement of these services. To my knowledge, her office would have had to follow standard government tender processes,” said Mpofu.
But Fransman said Zille’s reactions to Scheepers’s court action left more questions than answers. “How does she know Scheepers? At what point did she meet him? Did she, as the premier, advise anyone to use him? Did she use illegal intelligence on both her own party members and other parties in the Western Cape?”
ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs said: “It has to be questioned why, when Zille’s office had access to the National Intelligence Agency, it would procure such services as the debugging of cellphones privately.
“Zille must come clean, say exactly how she came across Scheepers and why a state department (which has access to the intelligence fraternity) opted to hire a state official in his private capacity (which could be illegal) to conduct private spy work. On which grounds were these decisions made?” asked Jacobs.
[email protected], @mtyala
Cape Times
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