Zuma 'hitman' a hobo
2007-05-20 09:35
Johannesburg - The much-talked about "assassination plot" against ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma is a poorly-thought-through hoax centred on a vagrant who was paid R2 000 by Zuma's rape trial chief witness, Reverend Peete Mbambo, to make the claim.
City Press newspaper revealed on Sunday that the alleged "sniper" was never in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). He does not know how to use a rifle and was just happy to receive the much-needed cash in return for a signature about an assassination plot he knew nothing about.
City Press has established that a group of six people - including the priest, two lawyers and former policemen who worked in the KwaZulu homeland police and also took part in South Africa's border battles in Namibia - formed the core team behind the assassination hoax.
The hobo was arrested last Friday and has reportedly confessed to crime intelligence police in a detailed affidavit.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Sally de Beer has refused to comment.
However, it appears that Peete Mbambo, the man who assembled the list of witnesses who testified on the character of the plaintiff at the Zuma rape trial last year, is the mastermind behind the hoax.
Emotions were raised and security alerts issued after reports that Zuma could be assassinated ahead of the ANC's December congress. Political commentators and Zuma supporters immediately urged police to get to the root of the matter.
Now it appears there was no real threat on Zuma's life, just what sources describe as an "amateurish" plan.
Beachfront vagrant
Mbambo allegedly co-operated with a lawyer identified only as Dlamini. He had apparently worked on the divorce papers of Muzi Kunene - a key figure in the discredited hoax e-mail saga that saw National Intelligence Agency boss Billy Masetlha lose his job in a bitter battle with President Thabo Mbeki and Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils.
A highly placed source said, as with the hoax e-mail, the planners had done a hatchet job because they thought the plan would succeed if they based the claims on a hobo who police were "unlikely to find".
Sources with access to investigators, say a man identified as Clive van der Merwe was allegedly approached by Mbambo to act as a "sniper". But when Mbambo discovered Van der Merwe had a fixed address and worked as a car guard, he asked him to find a person who would be hard to trace.
Days later, Van der Merwe linked Mbambo with Ben Wyland Coetzee, a Durban beachfront vagrant with no fixed address.
Happy with Coetzee's work, Mbambo called Elias Khumalo, an ex-policeman in the former KwaZulu homeland. Mbambo, Khumalo and another person identified as Barnabas Xulu then allegedly took Coetzee on a drive in a white Toyota Camry. They asked him if he knew anything about the SANDF.
He said he knew of Battalion 32 and that his brother worked in the military. A statement was immediately prepared and Coetzee, who had initially asked for just R5 for food, was told he would get R5 000 for his signature.
He asked to read the statement but the men allegedly said they were in a hurry and started flashing R100 notes to him. Coetzee signed the statement. He was given R1 500 and driven back to where Van der Merwe was waiting.
The latter was rewarded with R800 for finding Coetzee. Van der Merwe then allegedly asked Coetzee: "Did you help my friends?" When Coetzee nodded, he was given another R500.
"For a poor guy who wanted just R5 or R10 for food, you can imagine how he felt," said the source.
Threat
City Press sources say that two days later, a white man put a firearm to Coetzee's head and said: "If you open your mouth about this matter, you are dead."
After acquiring the fraudulent affidavit and writing a wrong ID number for Coetzee, Mbambo allegedly approached a lawyer called Sibiya. He belatedly acted as a commissioner of oaths on Coetzee's affidavit - without even seeing Coetzee.
The affidavit was delivered to Zuma in September last year. He apparently kept it for some time without telling police.
He delivered it to police two months later and crime intelligence personnel were dispatched to deal with the matter. Van der Merwe and Khumalo then led police to Dlamini, the lawyer.
Khumalo, apparently in panic mode, allegedly spoke to the Mail and Guardian and ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula. The latter then made public comments about the danger to Zuma's life.
But, our sources say when police questioned him, he said he knew only what he had read in the press and what he had been told by Khumalo.
City Press has also learnt that Mbambo was flown by police helicopter from Alexandra to Durban ? where he was positively identified with fellow co-conspirators, by Coetzee and Van der Merwe.
When City Press contacted Mbambo on Saturday, he denied he had been flown to Durban and that he had been questioned by police. However, he acknowledged that he knew Khumalo, but said he was not involved in any illegal ploy about a fictitious Zuma assassination.
He then said he was on the road and could no longer answer questions. Later, a very rude woman refused to hand him the phone before it was switched off.
Barnabas Xulu is a Durban lawyer and a trustee of the Friends of JZ Trust. He is very close to its leader, Don Mkhwanazi, and is often seen around Zuma at public events.
Asked to comment, he said he would only do so if we gave him the name and rank of any police officer who said he had been to see him about the matter.
"Go and talk to the police as it is there where you will get reliable information," he said.