Spy cops illegally tapped journalists’ phones, police find

POLICE have finalised the probe into crime intelligence cops accused of duping a judge to illegally bug the phones of former police chief Bheki Cele and two Sunday Times journalists.

Former KwaZulu-Natal police spy boss Major-General Deena Moodley and covert intelligence collection officials Colonel Dumisani Zulu and Captain Bongani Cele are suspected of inserting the three mobile numbers under false names into a legitimate interception order.

The order, granted by Judge Joshua Khumalo on December 6 2010, authorised police to record “real time” calls, gain access to all text messages and use GPS co-ordinates to pinpoint the location of phone users.

The case has fuelled suspicions that rogue intelligence agents are routinely slipping numbers of politicians and journalists into bogus interception orders unwittingly approved by judges.

The Interception of Communications Act of 2002 says applications must correctly identify the target and that it is illegal to submit false or misleading information.

Police chief Riah Phiyega’s spokesman, Solomon Makgale, said police had “finalised the criminal investigation into illegal interception of the cellphones belonging to the two employees of the Sunday Times newspaper and the former national commissioner, as well as fraudulent submission of application papers to the court to authorise the interception”.

The docket was submitted to prosecutors in December, returned for further investigation and resubmitted in July, Makgale said.

“We believe that there is prima-facie evidence against the three SAPS members who were involved,” he said. “It is now up to the prosecuting authority to decide whether to prosecute or not.”

In May 2012 the Sunday Times submitted detailed statements to police after obtaining evidence that the mobile numbers of reporters Mzilikazi wa Afrika and Stephan Hofstatter had been inserted under false names in an application to intercept phones used by a KwaZulu-Natal crime syndicate.

In their sworn statements, the crime intelligence officials said they were targeting the journalists in late 2010 because they posed a threat to the police and Cele. They said they accidentally added Cele’s number to the interception order.

At the time the journalists were running a series of exposés critical of the police that eventually led to Cele being fired.

In his statement, Zulu said Moodley had informed him of a “secret meeting” he had with Cele about journalists trying to infiltrate the police and gave him a piece of paper with the journalists’ and Cele’s numbers written on it.

Zulu then instructed Captain Cele to intercept the numbers “as soon as possible, since feedback is awaited by the national commissioner”.

Zulu claims Captain Cele “probably felt it would be appropriate” to add the names to an existing interception order while “trying to achieve the national commissioner’s tasking with scant information at hand”.

However, Zulu does not admit to issuing this instruction. In a later statement, he also strongly denies receiving any instruction from Moodley to unlawfully bug the journalists’ phones.

“The instruction that I received from Major-General Moodley in 2010 was lawful in all respects,” he said.

However, in his statement, Captain Cele claimed Zulu ordered him to add the numbers to an existing interception application. “He [Zulu] further emphasised that the instruction came from above.

“He did not explain and nor did I question,” he said.

“I therefore added the numbers as I was instructed by Colonel Zulu under the fictitious individuals’ names. I also changed the contents of the statements in order to look as though the added individuals do collaborate with the initial two individuals to commit a crime.”

Another crime intelligence official, Colonel Brian Padayachee, also denies Moodley’s instruction was unlawful because the move formed part of a “covert investigation into the activities of certain journalists that posed a threat to the organisation”.

The three were also subjected to an internal disciplinary process. Moodley was transferred to another division, Cele has since resigned and Zulu’s disciplinary process is ongoing.

Moodley yesterday declined to discuss the case. “I did nothing illegal, and that’s what the [internal] inquiry found,” he said. Zulu and Cele declined to comment.