Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Helen Zille on Monday said the impeachment motion she will face over the intelligence controversy in the province would prove nothing but grand-standing by the African National Congress (ANC).
Zille described the ANC’s allegations that she used crime intelligence to spy on her political foes in and outside the DA as a “soap opera” and said her accusers had failed to set out the charges in terms of the law or the Constitution that had motivated their decision to bring the motion.
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“Tomorrow, I will become the first premier in the history of our democracy to face a motion of impeachment, “ Zille wrote in her weekly newsletter.
“To put it in ordinary language, the ANC must convince 28 members of the provincial legislature that I am guilty of serious misconduct, or a serious violation of the Constitution or the law, or that I am unable to perform the functions of the office of premier.
She added: “The state has not even charged me, let alone found me guilty of a serious violation of the constitution or the law, or any form of misconduct (let alone serious misconduct). And it will be interesting to see what evidence the ANC will produce to prove that I am unable to fulfil my functions.”
Earlier this month, ANC provincial leader Marius Fransman said the party would file a criminal complaint against Zille and urged her to resign after it emerged that her provincial government had employed a senior police crime intelligence officer in his private capacity to “debug” cellphones in her department.
Paul Scheepers, a captain in the provincial crime intelligence branch, was arrested in May and charged with fraud, perjury and violating the Electronic Communications Act.
However, the ANC, which is in opposition in the Western Cape, has yet to bring any formal charge against Zille.
“So I go into a debate tomorrow, not knowing what law or which section of the Constitution I am alleged to have violated. I have no idea what the basis is of any ‘serious misconduct’ I am alleged to have committed.
“It violates the principles of natural justice to make me answer unspecified (yet extremely serious) allegations. But these principles have long since ceased to matter to our opposition party. As with so many other things, this will all turn out to be ANC grandstanding, as they bring a frivolous and vexatious motion.
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“Past experience would tell them that previous attempts to manufacture spy scandals against me have been exposed in court as politically-motivated ANC plots.”
Zille reiterated that she had nothing to do with the hiring of Scheepers. She said the DA decided to “debug” telephones in her office in 2009, after the party won the province from the ANC, and she received “several warnings” that members of her cabinet were under surveillance by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
She said it was done after she sought, and failed to get, assurances that the NIA was not in fact listening in on her office.
“The cabinet request for the use of these encryption services went through the procurement process. I had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
Zille said she met Scheepers briefly on the day he arrived to work at her office.
“He worked on my phone and returned it to my secretary. As far as I am aware, I have not met him before or since. I did not know him, nor did I know he was a policeman.”
She said the ANC invented a story that she knowingly approached Scheepers to spy on her opponents inside and outside the DA, under the pre-text of “debugging” cellphones.
“This is complete fiction.”
ANA