I never sold out
Lekota insists statement put him in jail
President tells of months in solitary confinement as police sought to turn him state witness But Lekota insists he saw a letter in which Cyril ‘turned against comrades’
Despite emphatic denials by President Cyril Ramaphosa that he “sold out” his comrades to apartheid security police, COPE leader Mosiuoa Lekota insists he has seen the incriminating police statement made by Ramaphosa in 1974.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament yesterday, Lekota said after the state had closed the case against him and other activists, their lawyers had advised them to seek the statements made by fellow detainees.
It was then, Lekota said, that it came to light that Ramaphosa had given information to the police about them.
“That is when we got that statement of his when he said we put communist ideas in his head. But it laid the foundation for the charge. They got other people [to also] do that.
“The statement he made to the police constituted the foundation of the charge sheet that sent us to jail.
“Even if he didn’t ultimately testify, his statement was one of the key documents that put me behind bars.”
Lekota spent more than eight years in jail.
Ramaphosa vehemently denied the allegations initially made by Lekota in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
“I can testify that I have never ever been a spy. I’ve never worked with the enemy. All I have ever done in my life is my commitment to the people of our country, that’s all.
“You say you want us to establish a judicial commission. I have no interest as president of this country to appoint judicial commissions which are going to waste taxpayers’ money for nothing… that I will not do, because the ordinary people of our country know that there is no truth in this thing,” he said.
But EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said: “We are taking legal advice on possibly approaching courts because Ramaphosa is obviously conflicted. We want to force him to let the chief justice [Mogoeng Mogoeng] to appoint a judge, the same way we did with Zuma,” said Ndlozi.
“Ramaphosa says that the police wanted him to testify. The police can’t ask you to testify unless you told them something incriminating about comrades.”
Lekota said Ramaphosa was rewarded and sent home when he and others headed to Robben Island.
But Ramaphosa said he stood his ground and refused to say anything when the apartheid authorities compelled him to do so.
He detailed how he and other student leaders were arrested for marching at Mankweng police station in the former Lebowa area (now Limpopo) before he was transferred to Pretoria, where he was detained for six months.
“My arrest was quite dramatic. They [apartheid police] started interrogating me viciously and the issue was that they wanted me to give evidence against accused number one, Seth Cooper, accused number two, Muntu Myeza, and Terror Lekota, accused number three, [among] many others.
“I refused. They thought they would use my dad to put pressure on me to agree to become a state witness and I said ‘I will not do it’.”
Ramaphosa’s father was a police sergeant at the time.
“[I said] ‘Dad, I am not going to do it. I will never betray the comrades that I was working with and if I did, where will I go and live thereafter?’ I refused,” said Ramaphosa to a round of applause.
The ANC also defended Ramaphosa, describing Lekota’s comments as “baseless”.
Cooper also dismissed Lekota’s claims.
“We have reached silly season now where people make allegations against others. People want to grandstand but this is a very serious matter because it throws the ANC and particularly the president into a harsh spotlight.
“The onus is on him [Lekota] to provide the evidence to that effect,” Cooper said.
“Very few people became state witnesses and definitely, Cyril Ramaphosa was not amongst them.”
Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni said Lekota’s remarks will not impact on the average voter’s choice during elections.
“I doubt it will have that much damage when you consider many other people who have had such labels.
“An average voter is very sophisticated, they know that when elections are close, people will throw mud and will do everything to tarnish one’s reputation.”