Spy saga: Zille ‘must resign’

Western Cape premier Helen Zille File picture: Bhekikhaya Mabaso

Western Cape premier Helen Zille File picture: Bhekikhaya Mabaso

Published Nov 27, 2015

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Spies, gangs and their ties to politicians dominated the question sessions in the Western Cape legislature on Thursday, with an opposition ANC MPL calling for Premier Helen Zille to resign.

ANC members came to the House armed with posters depicting Community Safety MEC Dan Plato alongside known gang leaders, but their DA counterparts also came prepared, retaliating with their own blown up poster depicting President Jacob Zuma on the front page of a newspaper about his alleged dealings with gangs.

The debate was heated from the start, with Zille and provincial ANC leader Marius Fransman arguing over the spying saga that has unfolded in recent weeks.

Responding to questions posed by ANC chief whip Pierre Uys, regarding her links with the crime intelligence officer mentioned in her newsletter last month, Zille outlined her dealings with Eagle Eye Solution Technologies and its owner, Paul Scheepers, who was hired to debug cellphones.

Maintaining her composure, Zille said when the now-defunct National Intelligence Agency (NIA) refused to give assurances that they were not conducting surveillance on the cellphones of MECs, she had hired a company to debug phones.

Describing the ANC’s latest allegations against her as “party politics and not facts”, Zille stressed that the Western Cape government did not make use of a private company for intelligence services.

She accused the police and the State Security Agency of colluding with the ANC to discredit her.

Zille said the ANC’s response to the Scheepers issue points to a “very guilty conscious” as she questioned why the opposition was so afraid of the information that Scheepers had uncovered during his policing job.

“I can say unequivocally that neither I nor my cabinet asked for anyone to be put under surveillance by Eagle Eye Solution Technologies or anyone else. If the leader of the opposition is worried that Scheepers has uncovered his deepest darkest secrets, he must look elsewhere for the culprits and stop throwing metaphorical smoke bombs at this cabinet or me in order to deflect the media’s attention from himself,” she said.

Zille conceded that when the services of Eagle Eye Solution Technologies were procured, the cabinet did not know that the company was owned by a serving policeman.

Fransman then accused Zille of lying to the House - an unparliamentary comment he was immediately forced to withdraw.

Urging Zille to “drop the act” and admit that she used taxpayers’ money to spy on her own members, Fransman named DA MPL Lennit Max and former MEC Theuns Botha as possible victims of her spying.

The ANC motioned to remove Zille as premier.

Cape Argus

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