By Anél Powell, Political Bureau and Sapa
The ANC's national executive committee decided on Sunday to hold its own probe into the hoax emails and Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon on Sunday said he was demanding an urgent and independent judicial commission of inquiry.
This after it was revealed at the weekend that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) had, among other things, tapped into telephone lines at the DA's parliamentary offices.
The interception was revealed in the report of Inspector-General Zolile Ngcakani after investigating hoax emails and the unlawful surveillance of ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Saki Macozoma and media academic Anton Harber.
Police are preparing to arrest suspects which could include prominent ruling party officials.
Leon said if President Thabo Mbeki wavered in his response to the DA's letter of demand, South Africa could find itself in a situation comparable to the 1972 Watergate scandal that ended with the impeachment of US president Richard Nixon.
The telephones of the ANC's chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe and party spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama had also been bugged.
Information about the alleged surveillance of the DA and others was released to the media before Wednesday's scheduled briefing of the joint standing committee on intelligence (JCI) by Ngcakani.
The full report, that confirms that the 100-odd emails alluding to a political plot against then deputy president Jacob Zuma were fraudulent, remains classified information.
NIA Director-General Billy Masetlha, who allegedly paid an agent to fabricate the emails, was fired by Mbeki last week after Ngcakani briefed cabinet on his findings.
Leon said Mbeki would be "in dereliction of duty" if he failed to comply with the DA's demand for a full, independent inquiry into the country's intelligence agencies.
The DA would also consider laying a civil charge against the NIA.
On Saturday national Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi said the people behind the hoax emails would be charged "very soon".
Selebi declined to comment on whether ANC Secretary-General Kgalema Motlanthe would be one of those facing arrest.
Motlanthe was one of the first people to get the emails and circulate them at an NEC meeting last year.
On the possibility that he may be arrested, Motlanthe said on Sunday: "Let it happen first, before I comment."
Motlanthe, who was mentioned as a target of a smear campaign by Mbeki sympathisers in the emails, was reportedly furious at the weekend NEC meeting, insisting that the ANC should conduct its own investigation to get to the bottom of the emails.
He was supported by the ANC Youth League, former Limpopo premier Ngoako Rama-tlhodi, former Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa, parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete-Kgositsile and SACP secretary-general Blade Nzimande.
An NEC member said Motlanthe was enraged that although Ngcakani and the cabinet had declared the emails a hoax, no one was prepared to release the full report and disclose the extent of the phone tapping.
"Why can't they release everything, hiding behind security sensitivities?" the member said.
The hoax emails and subsequent telephone surveillance have been linked to the state-sanctioned Avani Project, suggesting that the bugging of businessmen, journalists and political opposition could have been authorised by Mbeki.
Questions asked by the DA include whether the bugging was authorised by Mbeki and the minister of intelligence, why the DA and other organisations were targeted and which DA offices were bugged and when.
"We cannot have a constitutional democracy if the NIA behaves in this way," said Leon.
Paul Swart, an advocate who sits on the JCI, said the intelligence minister had released only an edited version of the report at last week's media briefing. "We don't know how much is being hidden," he said.
Harber, who is in London, said: "The truth is I am quite bemused that they should do this. It is a worry that (the NIA) should break the rules to watch a journalist."