The Public Protector has threatened to release the preliminary findings on an investigation involving a controversial R500m property deal signed by the police chief General Bheki Cele after the contract was awarded to a billionaire businessman. A clearly disappointed advocate Thuli Madonsela told The New Age yesterday that she had sent her draft report to the SA Police Services (Saps), the Treasury and Public Works Department in early December for comment. But none of the departments had responded to the findings of the Public Protector by Monday, which was the deadline set. “I will go ahead and release the findings to the public if they did not meet my new deadline of January 21,” Madonsela said.
The Public Protector conducted the investigation together with the Special Investigating Unit, headed by Willie Hofmeyr, after a complaint laid by Paul Hoffman, the director of the South African Institute for Accountability.
Madonsela said her investigators have held two interviews with Cele on the procurement processes that were followed in the controversial deal. Asked about the findings against Cele in the report, Madonsela declined to comment further. “I am considering adverse findings against either Public Works or the Saps and my final determination will depend on the information or evidence that may come through from their comments. “We did have a meeting with (Cele) and we discussed broadly the (procurement) process and a few days later we had a lengthy interview with him.”
The Public Protector’s report into the R500m property deal has angered many senior police officials, in particular Cele, who has since appointed Bowman & Gilfillan Attorneys, one of the biggest law firms in the country, to scrutinise Madonsela’s report. According to a senior police source, Cele sought private counsel despite having state attorneys and legal advisors at his disposal. The source indicated that Cele intended to challenge Madonsela’s ruling against the police on the procurement procedures that were followed to clinch the deal. “They’ve now brought in a firm of attorneys and they’ve asked them to bring in senior counsel,” said the source.
Cele signed the deal to move Saps top police brass to businessman Roux Shabangu’s building almost two months before the billionaire bought it. This comes as Nedbank, which is financing the purchase of Middestad building in Pretoria by Shabangu, is considering to pull out of the deal. Nedbank’s Ken Reynolds confirmed yesterday that the bank had asked for a copy of Madonsela’s draft report. But he denied that this was because they wanted to pull out of the property deal. “We are just making sure that whatever investigation that has happened there was nothing irregular (about the deal),” Reynolds said. “We are just covering ourselves. We’ve asked for the report and we have not been given it.” Just weeks after details of the controversial deal were published former Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge announced that the deal had been put on ice to allow for Madonsela and Hofmeyr to investigate.
Cele’s office yesterday said the general’s decision to enlist the services of legal big guns to defend himself against the allegations contained in the report was his constitutional right. “The South African Police Service is entitled, like everyone else, to the best available legal advice,” said Maj-Gen Nonkululeko Mbatha. She said the reason Cele missed the deadline to respond to Madonsela’s report was for him “to give the report adequate and considered scrutiny”. “The public protector has more than four months to compile the report.” she said.
Source: The New Age
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