Johannesburg - The so-called “spy tapes” reveal how former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy considered travelling to Polokwane on the eve of the ANC's 2007 conference to personally charge Jacob Zuma with corruption, the Sunday Times reported.
McCarthy was in a panic on the eve of the conference as he plotted the timing of corruption charges against Zuma with former prosecutions boss Bulelani Ngcuka in a series of calls, according to the report.
Ngcuka and then justice minister Brigitte Mabandla held McCarthy back from moving against Zuma.
Mabandla warned that the move could result in bloodshed at the conference while Ngcuka begged McCarthy not to proceed, the newspaper reported.
The High Court in Pretoria granted the Sunday Times access to the full recordings of the tapes. The tapes were handed over to Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille earlier this month.
The newspaper reported that the tapes revealed how paranoia gripped the camps of Zuma and Thabo Mbeki ahead of the 2007
conference.
Zuma was elected African National Congress president at the conference.
Former president Thabo Mbeki had been a contender for another term.
The charges were dropped shortly before Zuma was sworn in as president in 2009.
Then acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, Mokotedi Mpshe, said the tapes showed there was a political conspiracy against Zuma and so the case against him could not continue.
Sapa