JOHANNESBURG -The man accused of plotting the murders of 23 ministers and state officials said on Friday he could not recall if he had ever been admitted to a mental institution.

Elvis Ramosebudi told the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court he had no comment on the Hawks claims, that he was plotting a coup. 

The Hawks arrested him this week claiming he had been planning to murder so-called state capture beneficiaries since October.

They accuse him of seeking R140-million in funding for the assassination of government and business leaders, reportedly including President Jacob Zuma and former Eskom CEO and now MP Brian Molefe.

The National Prosecuting Authority would not confirm whether Zuma and the Gupta family were among Ramosebudi’s targets.

It was clear on Friday that prosecutors are concerned about his mental health.

Fundraising so he could pay whoever he was going to go to while he was involved in this thing …The normal person cannot go around and ask for millions, not thousands, using his own personal things so they’re of the view that maybe the accused’s mental status is not okay,” said King Masemola.

The magistrate then sought further clarity from Ramosebudi, asking him is he had ever been admitted to an institution for mental illness in the past.

The accused replied: “I can’t recall.”

The case will resume on on Tuesday. 

*Click on the video above to hear special reporter Karyn Maughan explain more about the alleged coup and the speculation around the case.

eNCA

Johannesburg – The annual observance of Freedom Day is about reflecting on how far South Africans have come, the ANC said on Thursday.

South Africa in 2017 is an infinitely better place to live in than it was in 1994, the party’s spokesperson Khusela Sangoni said in a statement. 

“The freedoms we enjoy today were not free but the function of sacrifices of our forbearers that laid the foundation for the country in which we live today and we should never take them for granted,” Sangoni said.

She said the party’s efforts aimed at growing the economy were bearing fruits with new investments.

However, despite this, the nation still had many challenges to overcome, Sangoni said.

“As we have noted before South Africa continues to represent the most acute manifestation of most of the social fault-lines that define humanity’s current challenges: race, class, gender and geographic location.

“Income inequality and inequitable distribution of assets are at their most intense. Poverty and unbridled opulence live side by side.”

Sangoni said Freedom Day was also meant to assess the work that needed to be done to build national democratic society.

“We must at all times remain vigilant of certain sections of our population who were the beneficiaries of the old order and are bent on either reversing this achievement or at best stall the progress.” 

PRETORIA – Former president Nelson Mandela’s eldest granddaughter, Ndileka told an opposition rally on Thursday the country was in dire of leaders who have moral values and integrity and will uphold the constitution.

Mandela was speaking during a Freedom Movement rally in Pretoria at which political leaders reiterated a call to President Jacob Zuma to step down. It was held to coincide with Freedom Day, which marked the anniversary of the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.

“This is the day that we should remind ourselves what we stand for as the people, as a country. We are a non-racial, non- sexist democratic country which stood as one when we’re fighting for our democracy, we still stand as one irrespective of political affiliations, colour, creed and religion.”

“We call on our government to account, this is enshrined in our constitution, to always hold our government in check. We are asking our government to listen to our voices, to listen to our cries, when we ask them that we want equal opportunities for our children in terms of education, job and benefiting from the land.”

Earlier this year, the 52-year-old publicly stated that she would never vote for the ANC again. She cited the social grant crisis and Life Esidimeni tragedy as her reasons for having lost faith in the ruling party.

The rally which was dominated by DA members, was attended by different political leaders including Cope’s Mosiuoa Lekota, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa and the African Christian Democratic Party’s Kenneth Meshoe.

WATCH: Freedom Movement rally for reclamation of the state

Speaking to journalists after giving his speech, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said there were going to be more events such as this rolling across the country and there would be march against Zuma on the day the National Assembly voted on a motion of no confidence against him.

“The issues we are facing are not secretarial, they are not divisive, they are for all South Africans. Whether it’s junk status, all of us, the poor South Africans, are going to face difficult days ahead as food prices rise, as the economy faces the prospects of not creating work, these are the issues that speak to all of us.”

He said even if Zuma refused to hear the cries to protest, the fact remained that he was losing his hold on leadership as more and more South Africans stood together and called for him to be removed from office.

“But we must not lose track, and all of us as the people of this country must build a government that is capable. That is why I maintain that coalition governments are the way foward….People can work together across the political spectrum, labour and religious sectors,” Maimane said.

Maimane said on this day in 1994 people voted for a new government because they were tired with the old one. He said history will repeat itself in the 2019 elections.

African News Agency

Johannesburg – The Jewish community will continue to be vigilant following revelations that schools and some individuals were listed as targets in a court indictment against twin brothers Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie.

In the indictment submitted to the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, the State lists 12 activities the twins were instructed to carry out – using firearms, explosives, and possibly poisons.

“In August 2015 [Tony-Lee] became a participant in a series of Telegram chats with Abu Fidaa, an ISIS network, and other persons whose real identities are unknown to the State, during which he was instructed to:

– Attack the best targets involving ‘US/Brit/French interest in SA’;
– Kill Zapiro who drew the Messenger of Allah cartoon;
– Kill Jews who fight in Israel and return to South Africa;
– Kill affluent Jews; and 
– Kill gay imam, “as yet unidentified”.

Other targets included King David High School in Linksfield, Johannesburg, the UK High Commission, the embassies of the USA and Russia, the First Secretary of French Mission, Jewish investment banker Roy Topol, SA Zionist Federation Telfed, state-owned arms manufacturer Denel, Jewish community events and foreign interests at airports.

The SA Jewish Board of Deputies said it was aware of the contents of the indictment and would continue to follow the case.

“The SA Jewish community is constantly vigilant against acts of terrorism, and will continue to be so,” national chairperson Jeff Katz said.

Caught by surprise

Terrorism was a global phenomenon and South Africa was not immune from it. SAJBD had confidence in South Africa’s law enforcement agencies and would work closely with them whenever asked, he said.

Cartoonist Zapiro, whose real name is Jonathan Shapiro, declined to comment.

The twins were arrested during raids in Newclare and Azaadville on the West Rand in July 2016.

According to their charge sheet, the brothers were allegedly linked to the self-proclaimed Islamic State group and were allegedly planning to detonate explosives at a US embassy and “Jewish institutions” in South Africa.

The investigating officer found the twins had been active on social media prior to their arrests, allegedly discussing matters that could incriminate them.

Speaking on behalf of King David High School, Rabbi Craig Kacev, who is the director of the Jewish Board of Education, told News24 that authorities had alerted them to the matter during their investigations. It had caught the board by surprise.

“One never wants to be on the receiving end of potential alleged terrorist activity.”

‘One never knows’

He said the twin brothers were arrested shortly after the King David schools had begun upgrading their security.

“Our next phase of security had started in May and the Thulsie twins were arrested in July. So, in many ways, it vindicated the strategic position we had taken to move to the next level of security implementation in our schools,” he said.

The board sent a letter to parents on Tuesday, on the same day as the 23-year-old brothers made a brief appearance in court. It said they were working with authorities and would remain as alert as ever.

“One never knows,” Kacev said.

According to the indictment, the twins’ internet search histories included downloading “The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook”, “How to survive in the West – A Mujahid [Fighter’s] Guide”, “Muslim Gangs”, “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom”, and guides to making homemade explosives and silencers. 

The matter was postponed to May 15 and would be transferred to the High Court in Johannesburg.

Cape Town – A senior police officer has revealed how apartheid-era officials bombed a building in Johannesburg to allegedly cover up the theft of a 25-metre printing press, which they reassembled in police headquarters, and used to churn out counterfeit money.

Some R200 notes issued around the time of the 1995 Rugby World Cup were apparently created in this fraudulent manner.

It is understood a part of the printing press may still be in Angola.

Police officer Major-General Jeremy Vearey, on Wednesday spoke to News24 about the press.

“I last was told by our sources in the security police, who were working for the [ANC’s] department of intelligence and security, [that] a part of that press was in Angola.”

He explained that nearly a decade after the press was stolen, a plate from it was found to have been used to create more counterfeit money.

It was not immediately clear how much counterfeit money was churned out from the press and for how long.

Vearey spoke to News24 about his time in the ANC intelligence unit as a trial involving his colleague, Major-General Andre Lincoln, is playing out in the Western Cape High Court.

Former president Nelson Mandela appointed Lincoln in 1996 to head an elite investigative unit. It was run separately from the police and focused on probing Cape Town based mafioso Vito Palazzolo.

Lincoln is claiming R15m in damages from the minister of safety and security (now the minister of police) in a civil trial. He alleges fellow senior police officers realised he had gathered intelligence on their plans, including one to murder Mandela, so they framed him.

Prior to working as police officers, both Vearey and Lincoln had been in the ANC’s now-defunct department of intelligence and security.

Vearey said that during this time, they had gathered information about certain police officers.

He explained that in the early 1990s, before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up, several security police officers feared being tried.

Fear and anxiety

“We used that sense of fear and anxiety to get some of them to work for us. We came [into the police] with a network of informants.”

On May 7, 1987, Cosatu House in Johannesburg, which housed the printing press, was bombed.

“This was to mislead journalists,” Vearey said.

According to TRC documents, former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock was involved in the bombing.

Former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok and then-chief of the security branch, Johannes van der Merwe, had provided evidence indicating that “prohibited meetings were held at Cosatu House”.

Deon Greyling, a security branch officer “mentioned as a target the newly-acquired printing press that had arrived the previous week”, the documents read.

Secret theft

Vearey told News24 the printing press was stolen and that the bombing was carried out to conceal this. The press was apparently dismantled and trucks were used to transport it away.

Vearey said it was moved to the police headquarters in Silverton, Pretoria.

He said ahead of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, stricter checks for counterfeit money were put in place. Scanners were used to detect it, particularly dollars, at hotels.

“In a Newlands hotel we came across R200 notes. We identified the counterfeiter as having worked for the security police in the 1980s.”

The notes had apparently been printed on the stolen press. A large number of counterfeit US dollar bills were allegedly produced on the press.

In 2010 it was reported that the South African Reserve Bank recalled R200 notes issued before 2005 because of a counterfeiting problem.

But this may not have been linked to the printing press.

US link

Vearey said the lead investigator in the case against New York crime family head John Gotti came to South Africa to investigate the production of counterfeit dollars.

Lincoln, during his civil trial, previously testified that during the presidential investigative unit’s initial investigations it was uncovered that Simon Nothnagel, attached to the police’s commercial crime unit, was allegedly involved in a counterfeit US dollar operation.

These dollars, according to Lincoln’s testimony, were printed at police headquarters in Pretoria.

This investigation led them to uncover the alleged plot to kill Mandela and recover, in police offices, a “handcrafted rifle” which would have been used in the attempt.

“Necessary steps were taken to prevent the assassination of the president,” Lincoln testified.

Nothing ever came of the investigation.

Counterfeit dollar probes

The Western Cape High Court on Tuesday rejected the police minister’s application of absolution in the Lincoln case. The court said in its ruling, which dealt mostly with Lincoln’s evidence so far, that more was uncovered aside from Nothnagel’s involvement in fraudulent transactions involving counterfeit US dollars.

“In collaboration with the American Secret Service, [the unit] also uncovered the so-called Operation Donna in which counterfeit US dollars were being printed in the basement of the SAPS head office in Pretoria, which – together with matric certificates, university degrees and drivers licences – were being printed for various generals within SAPS,” the court said.

This civil trial is set to continue next Tuesday.

It was postponed on Wednesday as former high-ranking policeman, Leonard Knipe, who had been scheduled to continue testifying, was hospitalised.