Vlakplaas link to Zuma raids

2005-08-24 22:53

Adriaan Basson

Johannesburg - A former boss of the notorious Vlakplaas has been drawn into last week's raids on the properties of dismissed deputy president Jacob Zuma.

Former general Krappies Engelbrecht, who was also the commanding officer of Brixton murder and robbery unit, works for a company the Scorpions use for the forensic analysis of computer information.

At a national prosecuting authority (NPA) press conference on Wednesday in Pretoria, a reporter asked national director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, if he was aware of Engelbrecht's involvement.

Pikoli replied he did not know about it and that the Scorpions, audit firm KPMG and a company that did forensic analysis of computer information were involved in the raids.

Computer Security and Forensic Solutions (CSFS), the firm to which Pikoli referred and which employs Engelbrecht, was also involved in the investigation into Schabir Shaik, Zuma's former financial adviser.

Encrypted French fax

Bennie Labuschagne, one of the other employees at CSFS, testified in the Shaik trial about the computer version of the infamous encrypted French fax that a former secretary of arms firm Thales saved on a computer diskette.

Labushagne analysed the diskette and the computer on which the secretary, Sue Delique, worked.

He found that Delique typed the fax on March 17 2000 and saved it on a computer diskette.

The fax is the State's most-important exhibit to convince the court that Zuma, Shaik and Alain Thétard of Thales held a meeting on March 11 2000 in Durban and that Zuma consented at that meeting to accept a bribe of R500 000 a year.

On Wednesday, Labuschagne referred reporters' inquiries to Scorpions spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi.

He said Pikoli could not comment yet about Engelbrecht's involvement as he had not yet been fully informed about it.

"He will decide then if anything should be done," said Nkosi.

Has denied allegations

At his trial, Eugene de Kock, former commanding officer of Vlakplaas, accused Engelbrecht of being present when De Kock was told to "flatten" the house of Sam Chand and his family in Botswana.

Chand, his wife Hagera, and their three sons died in April 1990 in that Vlakplaas operation.

Engelbrecht denied De Kock's allegations.

Engelbrecht appeared in 1996 before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his investigating team cross-examined him for nearly six hours.

- Beeld