Dina Pule linked to assassination plot

Man claims he was asked to arrange a hit on two members of ethics panel

DISGRACED former communications minister Dina Pule, found guilty this week of lying to parliament after dishing out foreign trips and business deals to her boyfriend, has been linked to an alleged plot to assassinate top parliamentary officials probing her for misconduct.

The Sunday Times has established that a top-level police probe is under way into claims by a man who said he was hired by Pule’s boyfriend, Phosane Mngqibisa, to arrange the murder of parliamentary ethics committee chairman Professor Ben Turok and the registrar of members’ interests, Fazela Mohamed. The two were part of the team investigating Pule.

The police confirmed that they had interviewed several people with first-hand information about the threat, including the alleged plotter — although they questioned his credibility.

Turok’s committee this week ruled that Pule was guilty of misconduct and lying under oath, following a Sunday Times exposé last year that she leaned on telecoms companies to sponsor the ICT Indaba that paid Mngqibisa’s company, Khemano, R6-million in questionable “management fees”, and that she flew him around the world at taxpayers’ expense.

The man behind the claim, whose name is known to the Sunday Times, met parliament’s head of security, Zelda Holtzman, and Mohamed in Cape Town three weeks ago to confess that he had been asked to organise the hit. He said he no longer wanted to carry out his instructions.

The threats to Turok and Mohamed were taken so seriously that they were each assigned two bodyguards.

The man contacted the Sunday Times by e-mail on July 17, claiming to have “information that can prove that Phosane Mngqibisa (and by extension Dina Pule) had called a hit on Professor Ben Turok so that he couldn’t attend the final sitdown of the ethics committee and therefore give the accused more time to come up with a solution for their issues with the ethics committee and Public Protector”.

“I can also prove that Phosane Mngqibisa tried to create falsified documents to counter all

claims sitting before the committee and the public protector,” he said.

“The hit to kill Ben Turok was issued to me as a specialist consultant. I was to recruit a hit man for the job. All plans were disturbed by the cabinet reshuffle that was made by the president last Tuesday. I have SMSes, e-mails and recordings to prove my claims.”

He said in the e-mail: “Should this be published, Phosane Mngqibisa and Dina Pule will know it was leaked by me…”

The man repeated these claims in more detail at a faceto-face meeting with the Sunday Times on July 22. At that meeting, he presented SMSes he said were between him and Mngqibisa, planning their first meeting at Emerald Resort and Casino in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, where Mngqibisa allegedly asked him to falsify documents to get him and Pule off the hook with the committee.

The hit to kill Ben Turok was issued to me as a specialist consultant

“I agreed to falsify documents that would have proved that Phosane paid for all his trips with the minister. And he agreed to pay me my fee of R400 000 for the job,” he said.

The man claimed he had asked Mngqibisa for a deposit and another meeting was arranged to hand him the money at an upmarket restaurant in Sandton, Johannesburg. “Phosane said it was too risky to deposit money into my account and asked if I can come and collect it in cash.”

He alleged that it was at this meeting that Mngqibisa asked him to organise a hit on Turok and Mohamed. He said that the request to organise a hit man made him reconsider his deal with Mngqibisa.

“I might be doing something illegal in my line of duty, but killing a person is out of my league,” he said.

His claims could not be independently verified because the Sunday Times has not been privy to any of the recordings and documents he claimed to have.

Attempts to contact Pule for

comment were unsuccessful. Mngqibisa described the claims as “nonsense”.

“I meet many people all the time for business, but certainly not to plan hits or to fabricate documents,” he said. He said police were investigating “rogue” individuals for “trying to extort money from me”.

The ethics committee report on Pule, released on Wednesday, confirmed that the two members had received a threat. It stated: “The panel was informed that parliament’s head of security and management had received information of a threat to harm the chairperson of the panel and registrar and to disrupt the proceedings of the panel. These threats were reported to the authorities and appropriate measures were taken to safeguard the work of the panel and its personnel.”

In an interview with the Sunday Times on Thursday, Turok confirmed that he had been assigned two bodyguards for the past two weeks. “I have written to the minister of police and the national police commissioner about the matter,” he said.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s spokesman, Zweli Mnisi, said: “The minister was notified about the matter. He delegated it to police management to follow it up. A threat assessment or analysis will be conducted by police management that will determine the way forward.”

National police commissioner General Riah Phiyega’s spokesman, Solomon Mokgale, said: “We interviewed a number of people, including the person who claims to have first-hand information regarding the security threat allegations.”

Mokgale refused to name those interviewed, or confirm or deny that Pule and Mngqibisa were suspects.

Mokgale said the man making the allegations “has proven to be very uncooperative and not credible. He makes allegations that he cannot corroborate. Notwithstanding, we conducted our own independent investigation. As indicated, the investigation is still continuing to assess the source and validity of the allegations.”

When the Sunday Times contacted the man on Thursday he refused to comment further. “I am only going to speak to the police,” he said.