Cape Town - Details of how a plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela was foiled and, allegedly, criminal police activities are likely to be revealed when a lawsuit against the then Minister of Safety and Security and the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development comes before the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
Major-General Andre Lincoln is suing the ministers for R15 million for damages suffered when he was “maliciously” criminally charged while he was investigating secret police activities involving organised crime in the Western Cape.
Part of the evidence likely to be put before the court relates to a probe into a covert police operation, Project Donna, involving the printing of counterfeit money and how information about this was provided to then-minister of safety and security Sydney Mufamadi, and then-deputy president Thabo Mbeki.
Some of the officers involved in Project Donna were said to have been linked to a plot to assassinate Mandela at his inauguration at the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1994.
Lincoln’s woes began after he was appointed by then-President Mandela as the commander of a presidential investigation task unit set up to probe alleged irregular conduct of senior police officers in the province.
The task team had to investigate the activities of Vito Palazzolo, an alleged Italian mafia member living in the province at the time and now jailed in Italy, and the involvement of senior police officers in the activities of Palazzolo.
Part of Mandela’s instruction to then national police commissioner George Fivaz was that Lincoln, a former underground ANC operative, would report directly to the president with no interference from top management of the police.
However, Lincoln claims in court papers, provincial police top brass tried to sabotage the investigation and Fivaz, in turn, ordered a “malicious prosecution”against him.
Lincoln was charged on 47 counts including fraud, drunken driving and theft. He was convicted on 17 of the charges and was sentenced to nine years imprisonment in 2003.
His appeal of the conviction and sentence at the High Court saw him exonerated in 2009.
Although he was reinstated in 2010, he was employed at a lower level of seniority damaging his chances of career advancement, a far cry from the 1990s when there was media speculation he was in line for a senior police management post.
In 2016, Lincoln approached the court to force the ministers to compensate him for damages suffered when he was convicted and lost his job.
He is suing for R15 million for damages, defamation, loss of income and legal costs.
However, the ministers have raised a special plea denying liability and capacity to be sued as defendants in the matter. They submitted that authority to prosecute rested with the National Director of Public Prosecutions as prescribed by the NPA Act, which came into effect after Lincoln was charged.