By Thokozani Mtshali
Crippled by infighting, cracked by divisions and facing an unprecedented succession test, the ANC leadership is this week facing another daunting ordeal - hoax emails that are also threatening to turn comrades against comrades.
All eyes are on the high-powered national executive committee (NEC) meeting currently underway in Kempton Park where the agenda on discussing policy proposals could be sidetracked by hoax emails.
The "hoax-email" debacle erupted shortly after the dismissal of ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma and became part of the succession battle's dirty skirmishes that unfortunately spilled into the state terrain.
When the emails were distributed among the NEC members last year, they created a shock as the names of high-ranking NEC members and government officials were exposed in what turned out, at least according to cabinet, to be fake emails.
However, the distrust, hatred, suspicions and back-stabbing that were triggered by the e-mails are still resonating and spooking this weekend's NEC meeting.
The emails were purported to have been written by NEC and government officials seeking to use state institutions to discredit Zuma and ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe.
Ironically, Motlanthe was said to have received the intercepted emails from dismissed former spy chief Billy Masetlha, meaning he was also abusing state institutions.
Although the intelligence inspector-general Zolile Ngcakani investigated and declared them fake, Motlanthe squared up with President Thabo Mbeki - in one NEC meeting - and demanded that the ANC conduct its own probe.
So, this weekend's NEC meeting will discuss the report of the probe requested by Motlanthe regarding the impact of the emails on the organisation.
Insiders say the ANC's NEC meeting, which started on Thursday, was expected to dedicate a full day of its projected three-day duration to dealing with the emails.
It will receive a report from an internal commission set up in April last year, headed by ANC stalwart James Stuart and including other ruling party veterans such as Josiah Jele, Gilbert Ramano and Jackie Sedibe.
The controversial emails, which first started circulating around 2005, were sent to several journalists as authentic communications between an Mbeki faction in the ANC. This triggered panic in the security services and unleashed hell in the ANC.
They were supposed to be copies of electronic conversations between national director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, Mbeki's director-general, Frank Chikane, and policy adviser Joel Netshitenzhe, deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, her husband Bulelani Ngcuka, businessman Saki Macozoma and scores of others in the so-called Mbeki camp.
They were, according to the hoax emails, hatching a plot to permanently remove Zuma from the political scene.
In the other corner, another batch of e-mails were an apparent chat-room communication between DA leader Tony Leon, Wits University journalism professor Anton Harber and Scorpion investigators discussing how to use the succession squabble in the ANC to weaken the ruling party.
After Zuma's dismissal from government on June 14 2005, the word about the existence of the emails spread like wildfire and infuriated his supporters, especially in KwaZulu-Natal.
Zuma supporters to this day strongly believe that his dismissal was the culmination of the alleged plot.
According to one of the emails, Zuma is referred to as a "Zulu Boy" who must be stopped at all costs, and this ultimately prompted his supporters to create the "100 percent Zulu Boy" slogan that they emblazoned on thousands of hastily printed T-shirts to demonstrate their support for Zuma.
However, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils emphatically dismissed the emails as a fabrication by obnoxious elements within and outside the national Intelligence Agency who wanted to sew political confusion.
The investigations by Ngcakani - whose name was also added to the emails - also concurred with Kasrils and found that the emails were not authentic, hence they were dubbed the "hoax emails".
But be they genuine or fake, the e-mails have clearly damaged personal relations and destroyed trust between key ANC leaders such as Mbeki and Motlanthe.
According to some of the emails, the anti-Zuma crew in the ANC also had a Plan B in which they intended to discredit Motlanthe "once they had successfully dealt with Zuma".
Perhaps this is a reason why Motlanthe rejected the Ngcakani report and insisted on the ANC investigation.
However, it must also be remembered that apart from Motlanthe, parliament's standing committee on intelligence also rejected Ngcakani's report, saying his investigation had not followed proper procedures
But a few months after the e-mails had been made public, the ANC NEC meeting of November 2005 denied any of its leaders had been involved in any smear campaign.
Mbeki, Zuma, Motlanthe, Mlambo-Ngcuka, Macozoma, Chikane and Netshitenzhe are all believed to have testified before the ANC's internal commission.
What complicates the whole saga is that Masetlha, who was fired for running a parallel political intelligence project that included, in the words of Ngcakani, inserting the emails, is still facing criminal charges.
He told the Pretoria high court in a secret affidavit last year that he was also convinced that the e-mails had shown a serious political plot against Zuma that was part of the succession battle in the ANC.
It was for this reason that Masetlha approved an illegal surveillance of Macozoma, whom he also suspected had links with foreign intelligence agents during an intelligence sting called Project Avani.
The project that Ngcakani said was initially a legitimate intelligence assignment, was hijacked by Masetlha for his interests in fighting a party political battle.
Masetlha was suspended in October 2005 shortly after the surveillance on Macozoma was discovered, and subsequently fired.
His downfall also claimed two spy managers inside the NIA.
He claims that Kasrils was part of clique in the ANC that was against Zuma.
It is alleged that Masetlha illegally contracted a Durban IT businessman Muzi Kunene, to fabricate the emails and paid him about a quarter-of-a-million rand.
Masetlha and the NIA's electronic surveillance manager Funokwakhe Madlala as well as Kunene are currently facing fraud charges at the Pretoria Commercial Court relating to the "hoax emails".
In trying to spin the Stuart Commission's role, ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama once described it as a TRC-type process to heal the rift in the ANC.
Perhaps - after heated exchanges this weekend - the organisation will indeed heal the wounds caused by the succession battle and steer the election of new leaders in December away from a poisoned atmosphere.