Jaspreet Kindra reports for the Mail and Guardian. Excerpt:
The Inkatha Freedom Party apparently wants to subject its national council members to a lie detector test to establish whether they have leaked confidential information to the media and other organisations.
The IFP’s intentions were disclosed at its council meeting during the party’s national conference in Ulundi two weeks ago, the Mail & Guardian has established.
The M&G has learnt that the IFP had engaged the services of Durban-based company LieTech to conduct the tests, and the company had already started doing some work for the party.
National council members at the conference were asked to fill in a questionnaire prepared by the company. Among the questions were:
- “Will you be willing to undergo a lie detector test?”
- “Have you ever leaked National Council minutes?”
- “Have you ever leaked the speech of our president, Prince MG Buthelezi?”
- “Who do you suspect is the mole within our party?”
- “What must happen to the mole? Must he be suspended from the party?”
The IFP’s national organiser, Albert Mncwango, said he was not aware that the party had hired the services of a lie detecting concern, nor had he filled in any questionnaire.
He said, however, that the party had the “right to do whatever it takes to beef up its internal security”.
LieTech’s Ben Lombaard said he could neither confirm nor deny that the IFP had hired the services of his company. “We respect our client’s confidentiality,” he said.
The IFP’s lie detector tests come shortly after the M&G revealed that the party was plotting to use taxpayers’ money to enhance the profile of its provincial ministers and to weaken the African National Congress ahead of the 2004 elections.