Limpopo's fierytale: the people vs. the police, Armageddon style

On the day Robert McBride secured a nod in Parliament to lead police watchdog Ipid – and while more denials were heard by the Farlam Commission – news broke that officers in Limpopo shot dead two more protesters in a chaotic stand-off. This brings to eight the number of protesters killed this month alone. ALEX ELISEEV asks what it will take to make the police realise that its relationship with communities across South Africa is in a fiery tailspin.

The numbers are as mad as the story is startling: One satellite police station in the Relela village outside of Tzaneen, Limpopo. Twenty officers defending the outpost. Between 1,500 and 2,000 protesters “attacking” the station with stones and petrol bombs. Some 2,050 rounds of rubber bullets fired before the switch-over to live ammunition. Fifteen officers injured in the battle. Three of them left in a critical condition. Nineteen police cars damaged or destroyed. Two protesters shot and killed during the clash.

The images flooding your mind right now are probably closer to what South African soldiers endured in the Central African Republic rather than what police officers should be dealing with in a war-free, democratic country.

The question that pierces through all those figures is: how angry does a community have to be – what kind of hatred must be festering – for hundreds of people to come together and overrun, by force, their local police station? To try to obliterate the place that houses men and women who’ve taken an oath to protect you. We know too well the evil that lurks inside a mob, but this was an outright storming of a sacred castle.

Unlike with the Marikana bloodbath, there were probably few or no cameras filming the latest clash. The details still have to be investigated by the same organisation that Robert McBride – one of the country’s most controversial policemen – will soon be leading. But even on the police’s own version, what happened in Relela does not belong in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Granted, what happened there was not a routine service delivery protest over water or electricity that spiralled out of control. The circumstances were different. A local woman was killed and mutilated and the community wanted those responsible to be arrested. Police took a couple of suspects in for questioning but when they were released, their neighbours went on the rampage, burning down their homes. When the police intervened, a teenage boy was shot and killed. His death, in turn, became the magnet that drew the crowd to the Relela police station on Tuesday night.

Limpopo police claim that anyone in the same situation (the situation the officers were in) would have done the exact same thing. The crowd had broken through into the station’s courtyard and were out for revenge. Judging by the damage, there’s every reason to believe that the officers may have been genuinely terrified and thought their lives were in danger. They probably were. Those attacking the station were committing a criminal act. There’s also evidence that the police officers did their best to push back the mob, using thousands of rounds of rubber bullets.

But the issues here run much deeper, the main one being: how did it get to this? How did we reach a crisis which the police, and police minister Nathi Mthethwa, think they can talk their way out of? (Which, of course, they can’t).

Too much blood has been spilled. Too much horror witnessed. The list has been mentioned over and over again: Marikana, Tatane, Macia, Mothutlung, Durban Deep… For way too many people the police have become the enemy.

The cold, hard truth is that the level of violence we are seeing now is the consequence of earlier decisions. Decisions which ranged from bad to catastrophic. Remember the “shoot to kill!” and “maximum force” rhetoric spewing out of Bheki Cele’s mouth (which went viral). Or the decision by Jackie Selebi to reconfigure the Public Order Policing, leaving it in shambles. And, as a show of force, the re-introduction of military ranks.

But worst of all have been the decisions, one after the next, to send in civilians (political appointments) to lead the police. The latest, by President Jacob Zuma, was Riah Phiyega, who has so far had a disastrous run (some of it was not her fault, and some of it was).

The Institute for Security Studies – the think tank which the police loves to ignore – says all indicators show that police brutality is rising, public trust in the service is deteriorating and there doesn’t seem to be any real plan to reverse either of these trends.

Asked whether we can expect more bloodshed, the ISS’s Gareth Newham says: “I hope not. But we will continue to see growing anger and discontent and a breakdown of the relationship.”

He adds: “Warnings were ignored and now we’re seeing the consequences.”

The reality on the ground is complex. The balance between crushing violent crime or policing tense protests while respecting human rights is a delicate one. No one is saying it’s easy. Then there’s the politics, corruption, shadowy alliances and the unholy mess in units like Crime Intelligence (which Phiyega is now trying to clean up).

The time has come for drastic action. Possibly a complete overhaul of the Public Order Policing (POP). The unit needs an injection of officers and strong, accountable commanders. A message needs to cascade through the ranks that says that anyone who steps out of line, who loads up their shotgun with buckshot or fires without an order, will be punished. Officers need to be better trained. And all of this needs to be communicated to the public so that perceptions can begin to change. Maybe even hold a public commission of inquiry into the POP, diagnose the problem and fix it.

It’s time for Mthethwa to go beyond sending out media statements and praying with families of victims. He needs to take meaningful action. It’s time for President Jacob Zuma to step up. If he can find the time to congratulate Ladysmith Black Mambazo on a Grammy or the Bantu Church of Christ on its centenary, spur on the Matrics or defend eTolling, he can get stuck into this crisis. And by that we mean do something more than establish a task team. After all, the storming of a police station is about as close as you can come to true lawlessness.

Newham describes what happened in Relela as a “new development”. It’s much more than that. It’s a wake-up call, a short in the circuit of democracy. A signal that the relationship between police and civilians can’t be that of a state of war or a violent occupation. History teaches us how people, countries, respond to that.

When Phiyega visited the community on Wednesday, angry residents were shouting at her, demanding to know who gave the order to kill? She did her best to restore calm to the area, but she was up against a hostile crowd.

The police may be under attack, but they have to start earning back the trust. Showing the public that they are not the enemy. When what happened in Relela becomes a reality, you’ve waited too long to act. DM

Source: Daily Maverick

Lawrence Mrwebi accused of interfering in staff fraud probe

Controversial National Prosecuting Authority strongman Lawrence Mrwebi is at the centre of new claims of trying to interfere with an investigation. Mrwebi, appointed late last year to head the NPA’s Specialised Commercial Crime unit, has accumulated a number of controversial interventions in politically charged cases. They include his instruction to withdraw charges against suspended crime intelligence supremo Richard Mdluli and his review of charges against KwaZulu-Natal provincial heavyweights Mike Mabuyakhulu and Peggy Nkonyeni.

But the latest allegation is so serious that it is said to have been brought to the attention of the Hawks, although this could not be confirmed. And it is also much closer to home, involving current and former members of the NPA staff in corruption allegations that seem to have been kept buried for years.

The background

The case goes back to 2006 when the NPA advertised a tender for security at various NPA buildings around the country for an amount of R13-million. In a process that formed the basis of criminal charges against five men, the tender was awarded to an unknown KwaZulu-Natal security company, Intense Protection and Tourist Services, owned by KwaZulu-Natal businessperson Muziwandile Nala. By this time, the cost had increased to R19-million.

According to a summary of the evidence in the case, a key player in setting up the tender was the then acting head of the KwaZulu-Natal security and risk management unit of the NPA, Terence Joubert. Prior to the issuing of the tender, key members of its national security and risk management team travelled to Durban on official business.

The ‘coloured’ group

The group included its head, Walter “Wally” Rhoode, and the man who was later to serve as the chair of the bid evaluation committee, John Maree. Joubert, Rhoode and Maree formed part of what was later termed a “coloured” group that dominated the NPA’s security structures. During that visit, Joubert brought Nala after hours to the hotel in order to introduce him to the NPA delegation. Nala was later encouraged to bid for the tender and approached his former mentor, prominent Durban VIP protection specialist Andre van der Byl, to submit a joint bid because Nala had no capacity to meet the bid requirements.

According to the evidence summary, Nala approached Van der Byl with the claim that “through Terence Joubert … and other coloureds based at head office” he was “guaranteed” to win the tender.

The ‘scam’

The summary records that in the open tender no company met the minimum 60% score. Rhoode and the NPA’s head of supply chain management, Tebogo Sethabela, then recommended a closed tender through a request for bids from companies that had scored 40% or more. Inexplicably, Intense Protection was invited to bid again, although, according to the investigation, it had scored only 27% in the first round.

The instruction to invite Intense Protection was issued by both Maree and Sethabela, although they both allegedly knew the company did not qualify. It is alleged that Nala, Joubert and Van der Byl, who is a state witness, travelled to Pretoria for a briefing and that Nala handed over an envelope believed to contain R20 000 to Rhoode. Nala is alleged also to have gratified others in the syndicate, including Joubert, Maree and Sethabela.

The closed tender, under the chairmanship of Maree, disqualified the other two bidders and awarded the contract to Intense Protection. Van der Byl pulled out of the deal.

Joubert

Joubert occupies a highly sensitive position in the NPA’s Durban office and has wide internal access to information and involvement in internal investigations of NPA staff. It was this role that appears to have blown the lid on the alleged tender scam. Colleagues suspected that Joubert was being used by organised crime targets to disrupt their investigations by laying complaints against them, which Joubert would then investigate because of his risk management mandate.

It appears the NPA head office was, in turn, tipped off about an infraction by Joubert, who allegedly used a state vehicle for private travel to the Eastern Cape. The probe, by the Scorpions’s special national projects unit, was completed in August 2007 and is understood to have revealed the relationship between Nala and Joubert. Allegations and evidence against Joubert were handed to the NPA’s integrity management unit, led by Prince Mokotedi.

There the matter appears to have lain dormant until 2009 when, in May of that year, the Sowetan was tipped off about the Intense Protection contract. Following inquiries, the NPA announced that the matter had been referred to the police for investigation. Although no names of suspects were released, Rhoode, who had left the NPA to take over as head of security for the Fifa World Cup, unexpectedly resigned his position three months later.

Mokotedi

Mokotedi has since emerged as a key ally of Mrwebi and the acting national director of public prosecutions, Nomgcobo Jiba. Together with Jiba, he assisted Mdluli with the investigation into Gauteng Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel, which led to Nel’s arrest just ahead of the charging of former police commissioner Jackie Selebi.

Jiba faced disciplinary charges because of her actions and both Mdluli and Mokotedi gave statements in her defence. Both Mokotedi and Mrwebi gave evidence for the defence in the Selebi trial.

Enter the Hawks

According to evidence by the prosecutor in court, police began seriously probing the Intense Protection case only in late 2011 when it was taken over by the Hawks. In early December 2011, Hawks investigator Colonel Frans Kola arrested Nala, Joubert, Maree, Rhoode and Sethabela for tender fraud. They were all released on bail and have indicated they believe the state does not have a case against them.

However, during Kola’s investigation, the police conducted a search and seizure operation on Joubert. It was at this stage that Mrwebi allegedly intervened.

Enter Mrwebi

According to an account provided to the Mail & Guardian, Mrwebi “stormed in” to the office of the prosecutor overseeing the case, ­advocate Nathi Mncube, and allegedly instructed him to halt the execution of the search warrant.

Mncube asked to know the basis of this instruction because, at the time, he did not report to Mrwebi.

Mrwebi, who knows Joubert well from his time as head of the Scorpions in KwaZulu-Natal, could not provide a satisfactory justification and Mncube refused his demand.

It is alleged that Mrwebi thereupon telephoned a police officer involved in the search and attempted to instruct him to call off the search. The officer also refused.

Mrwebi also instructed Mncube to hand over the investigation docket. Mncube refused.

Following Jiba’s appointment to act as national director of public prosecutions in the place of Menzi Simelane at the end of December 2011, she called for a briefing on cases that had been overseen by Simelane, which included the Intense Protection matter.

Mncube was reluctant to brief Jiba in the presence of Mrwebi because of his previous interference, but she insisted.

Following the briefing, she confirmed that he must report to Mrwebi on this matter.

NPA response

The NPA declined to deal with the allegations of interference.

NPA spokesperson Bulelwa Makeke said in an email response: “As a matter of principle, we will not be drawn into responding to gossip-mongering and clandestine media leaks by faceless internal sources. Doing so will be legitimising clearly unethical behaviour by employees with anti-establishment agendas.”

On May 28, Mncube was provisionally forced to withdraw charges when the magistrate in the Pretoria Regional Court refused to grant another postponement for further investigation.

Mncube complained that part of the delay was owing to the investigator, Kola, having been removed from the case and the fact, since March, that two new officers had to be briefed.

The NPA said: “The investigations are on track and advocate Mncube will re-enrol the case as soon as the outstanding elements of the ­investigation are completed.”

Source: Mail & Guardian

PAUL HOFFMAN: Good chance of success for DA review of Zuma decision

The corridor chatter in places legal is that the DA’s review of the NPA’s decision not to proceed with the prosecution of President Jacob Zuma should be successful.

THE "good guys" in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), and there are many of them, must be kicking themselves today because they did not charge Jacob Zuma and Schabir Shaik together in the same case. The latter was sentenced to 15 years for corrupting the former, who is now the president of SA. The benefit of hindsight, that 20/20 vision it invariably imparts, is not always so beneficial, as the contrasting fates of Zuma and Shaik show.

In the latest twist in the saga of the cases of these two senior African National Congress (ANC) members, the Democratic Alliance (DA), which launched a review of the NPA’s decision not to proceed with the prosecution of Zuma in 2009, has instructed its attorneys to institute contempt of court proceedings against the NPA. This unique step has been taken because it has failed to comply with the March 20 order of the Supreme Court of Appeal that it deliver, within 14 days, the record of all the documents, recordings, materials and evidence that were before it when it considered, and made, the fateful decision not to proceed with the 783 charges of corruption Zuma was facing in the run-up to the last general election in May 2009.

It needs to be borne in mind that when the acting national director of public prosecutions, Mokotedi Mpshe, announced the decision, he made it clear that the NPA was convinced it had a good case on the merits of the charges against Zuma.

In other words, the NPA was bullish about its prospects of proving beyond any reasonable doubt that Zuma was corrupt.

The reason proffered for withdrawing the charges was that political interference in the process had so tainted the case that it would not be possible to give Zuma a fair trial.

Unfortunately, the evidence upon which this conclusion was based is far from relevant or convincing. The controversial conversation between former colleagues Bulelani Ngcuka and Leonard M cCarthy, neither of whom had any say in the matter of the pressing and timing of charges, is best characterised as idle and irrelevant gossiping, not as a train smash for the proper administration of criminal justice.

The person who made the decisions, Mpshe himself, was not aware of the content of the clandestinely taped conversation at any material time, so how it could have influenced or interfered with his decision-making processes remains a mystery and gives the DA good grounds for taking him on review, as it has done.

The small matter of how the tape recording relied upon by Mpshe came to be in the possession of the attorney acting for then private citizen Zuma, when there is no legal way in which this can happen, is also a matter that will cast doubt upon the propriety of the decision to withdraw the charges that Zuma was facing. And then, to complete the potted prehistory of the current issue, there is the embarrassing detail that the Hong Kong legal precedent that the NPA dug up to justify its otherwise mystifying decision was overturned on appeal before Mpshe relied on it. In short, the DA’s review has good prospects of success, if its merits can ever be reached by overcoming the delaying and point-taking tactics of the respondents in the matter.

If this occurs before Mangaung hosts the ANC’s elective national conference in December, then the cat will truly be among the pigeons. Whether the DA would prefer a second Zuma presidential term or not, the old legal axiom applies: justice delayed is justice denied. Retired chief justice Pius Langa had occasion to admonish Zuma’s legal team to desist from endless preliminary technical point-taking in earlier litigation; but the habit of the Stalingrad strategy seems to die hard.

In the DA’s press release announcing the decision to deal with the NPA’s disregard for the court order, certainly a lamentable state of affairs, a few rhetorical questions are raised in an attempt to breathe outrage into the wholly predictable. Usually, rhetorical questions have obvious answers, but this is not necessarily so in this instance. Seriatim:

"Is the failure to produce the record an indication that there is no record to produce?" This is hardly likely. The phalanx of exhausted and miserable-looking senior staff who flanked Mpshe as he made the announcement on national TV could not have been doing sweet nothing in the process of compiling the announcement. The fact that the announcement itself included mention of the strength of the merits of the case, in the view of the NPA, is an indication that there were conflicting views behind the looks of disappointed disbelief on the faces in the background. It is likely that a flurry of memorandums and e-mails preceded the announcement. Finding the Hong Kong case took effort. The NPA’s problem today is that these documents most likely point up the flaws in the decision made, hence the tardiness, possibly aimed at kicking the case into touch until the post-Mangaung period.

"Is it possible that there was no rational basis on which this crucial decision was taken?" Here the DA is closer to the mark. The taped conversation upon which the decision hinged seems to be legally irrelevant and practically of no real consequence. Its provenance is highly questionable; courts do not have regard to illegally acquired evidence and neither should the NPA.

"Was the decision taken on political grounds?" This is hyperbole. The grounds for the decision were announced at the time, they were couched in legal, not political, terms and the decision has to stand or fall on the cogency of the legal reasons given, irrespective of the background hum from highly placed cadres of the ANC, both within and outside the NPA, who were all undoubtedly putting political pressure on the hapless and vulnerable Mpshe.

"Is the NPA party to placing someone above the law just because he holds high political office?" It is not clear whether this last DA question refers to the alleged contempt of court now, or the original decision back in 2009. Section nine of the bill of rights guarantees equality before the law to all. The NPA is bound to respect and protect this. It is also supposed to act independently and "without fear, favour or prejudice".

Zuma was a private citizen when the prosecution was stopped. He was also leader of the ANC, a party that is openly and unashamedly striving for hegemonic control of all the levers of power in society. Zuma deployed Menzi Simelane (not Mpshe, who went after Jackie Selebi despite political interference in that, ultimately successful, prosecution process) as his new national director of public prosecutions. At the time, this was described as an "insurance policy" against the risk of the DA succeeding in the review, the completion of which is now being thwarted by foot-dragging and obfuscation. As the whole game plan of the ANC is to put party above state, or at least so commingle them as to render the two indistinguishable, the answer must unfortunately be a disgraceful "yes" on the aspects back then of the ambiguous question, as well as those now.

As the courts have sent Simelane packing by resoundingly upholding the rule of law, the corridor chatter in places legal is that the DA’s review should be successful. This involves the reinstatement of the 783 corruption charges. Should this happen, it remains to be seen whether Zuma will follow Humphrey Mmemezi, a former Gauteng MEC and art lover, into resignation in accordance with the new guidelines for comrades under a corruption cloud.

• Hoffman SC is with the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa

Source: Business Day

Selebi to be released on medical parole

FORMER national police commissioner Jackie Selebi, convicted of corruption, will be released from prison on Friday, Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele announced in Pretoria. "Mr Selebi will be going home today (Friday)," he told a media briefing in Pretoria. "The department has limited capacity to provide for palliative care needed by some offenders," he said.

Palliative care meant Selebi would be kept comfortable until his death, as there was no hope of him recovering. An 11-member medical parole advisory board met on June 20 and recommended the release of six offenders, including Selebi. Three of them had since died, Mr Ndebele said.

The minister said all offender and remand detainees had the right to adequate healthcare services, as enshrined in the constitution. "In terms of the Correctional Services Act, the department must provide healthcare services and refer patients to external healthcare facilities for secondary and tertiary levels of healthcare," he said.

The Correctional Services Act was reviewed, with the Correctional Matters Amendment Act approved in May last year. According to Section 29A and B of the act, an offender, nurse, medical practitioner, spouse, guardian or legal representative could apply for parole on a detainee’s behalf. Criteria for medical parole included a terminal, chronic or progressive medical condition, which had caused permanent or irreversible deterioration to the detainee’s state of physical health.

Medical parole advisory board chairman Dr Victor Ramathesele said Selebi’s condition qualified him for medical parole. "As the medical parole advisory board we examine every applying patient. We went to Steve Biko hospital and found him to be at the end stages of renal disease, undergoing perennial dialysis daily," he said.

James Selfe, Democratic Alliance spokesperson for correctional services, said it was important to ensure that proper procedure was followed when the decision on Selebi’s medical parole was made. "The old criteria limited medical parole to those who suffered from a terminal illness," he said. "This made it hard to determine who deserved medical parole. We need to ensure that procedures to ensure the interests of the victims are considered take place, including a hearing to decide these matters."

Mr Selfe said he would question Mr Ndebele on this in the National Assembly. Selebi was the president of Interpol at the time of the investigation of claims that he received money from convicted drug trafficker and police informer Glenn Agliotti.

He was convicted of corruption on July 2 2010 and handed a 15-year jail sentence. Selebi appealed against the corruption conviction in the Supreme Court of Appeal but his appeal was denied in December 2011. He collapsed at his home in Waterkloof, Pretoria, while watching the judgment on television.

It was decided he would stay in the medical wing of Pretoria Central Prison indefinitely as he suffered from diabetes and kidney disease. Doctors who were treating Selebi at Steve Biko Academic Hospital said his medical management was complicated.

"It was apparent from his admission that Mr Selebi had various chronic illnesses and thus needed constant medical care by suitably qualified practitioners. Because of his poor health prognosis and soaring hypertension levels, as well as unstable and uncontrollable sugar diabetic levels, he was referred to the Steve Biko Academic Hospital on December 12," correctional services commissioner Tom Moyane said at the time.

Source: Business Day

When will the political interference stop?

After President John F Kennedy was assassinated, Malcolm X famously said that the assassination was a case of the “chickens coming home to roost,” adding that “chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they’ve always made me glad.” In other words, he was implying that since the white man had used violence so often and so easily in America (especially against black Americans), it was just cosmic balance that the President would become a victim of violence.

Well, the chickens are coming home to roost big time with regard to the on-going political manipulation and abuse of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) by various political factions within the ANC. When a perception takes hold that the NPA will prosecute some and avoid prosecuting others solely on the basis of their political connections or on the basis of whether they belong to the faction associated with the incumbent President or not, the credibility of that institution is fatally compromised.

When newspapers then report allegations of flagrant political interference in decisions to prosecute politically connected politicians (as the Mail & Guardian again did on Friday), few well-informed people will read such reports with scepticism. After all, we know that the NPA has often made decisions in the past based on political rather on legal considerations (including in the case relating to the prosecution of President Zuma and then later, the dropping of charges against President Zuma).

It was exactly to prevent this sorry state of affairs, that the drafters of our Constitution included a provision in section 179(4) of the Constitution which states that: “National legislation must ensure that the prosecuting authority exercises its functions without fear, favour or prejudice”. Of course, politicians, including then President Thabo Mbeki and now President Jacob Zuma, do not like to focus on this section of the Constitution, instead pointing to section 179(6) of the Constitution to justify direct interference in the decisions of the NPA. This section states that: “The cabinet member responsible for the administration of justice must exercise final responsibility over the prosecuting authority”.

What the politicians choose to ignore is the following.

The Constitutional Court, in the First Certification Judgment, confirmed that despite this strange provision about the Minister having to exercise final responsibility for the NPA, the Constitution created an independent body in the following terms:

[Section] 179(4) provides that the national legislation must ensure that the prosecuting authority exercises its functions without fear, favour or prejudice. There is accordingly a constitutional guarantee of independence, and any legislation or executive action inconsistent therewith would be subject to constitutional control by the courts.

The politicians also conveniently ignore the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), in which it dealt with the need for the NPA to be independent while also taking cognisance of the need for the Minister to take final responsibility for the NPA in the following terms:

[T]he Constitution on the one hand vests the prosecutorial responsibility in the NPA while, on the other, it provides that the Minister must exercise final responsibility over it. These provisions may appear to conflict but, as the Namibian Supreme Court held in relation to comparable provisions in its Constitution, they are not incompatible. It held (I am using terms that conform with our Constitution) that although the Minister may not instruct the NPA to prosecute or to decline to prosecute or to terminate a pending prosecution, the Minister is entitled to be kept informed in respect of all prosecutions initiated or to be initiated which might arouse public interest or involve important aspects of legal or prosecutorial authority.

That is why the NPA Act requires members of the prosecuting authority to serve “impartially” and exercise, carry out or perform their powers, duties and functions “in good faith and without fear, favour or prejudice” and subject only to the Constitution and the law. The Act further provides that no one may interfere “improperly” with the NPA in the performance of its duties and functions (in section 32(1)(b) of the Act).

The Act confirms that the manner in which the Minister exercises final responsibility over the NPA is by obliging the NDPP, at the request of the Minister, to furnish the latter with information or a report with regard to any case and to provide the Minister with reasons for any decision taken. The Minister can ask for information, but cannot give any instructions or make any requests regarding the prosecution or non-prosecution of anybody (unless, of course, the Minister is intent on committing a criminal offence by “improperly” trying to influence the NPA).

Of course, problems around political interference in the work of the NPA and the corrupt influence of political loyalties on NPA decisions arise not only when the Minister tries to issue illegal and criminal instructions to the NPA (as former Minister Bridget Mbandla did when she sent a letter – drafted by Menzi Simelane – to former head of the NPA, Vusi Pikoli to stop the arrest of a crook who also happened to be the Police Commissioner ), but also when members in leadership positions inside the NPA stop acting in good faith and instead make decisions based purely on their own political loyalties and self-interest.

When they are willing to do the bidding of their political masters without being instructed to do so, or when they improperly follow the hints or instructions of the Minister or other member of the relevant political faction inside the ANC, they destroy the credibility of the NPA and directly undermine the Rule of Law by creating a situation in which some criminals are above the law because of the political protection they enjoy.

The allegations in the Mail & Guardian regarding the interference in the “Three Amigo’s” case as well as the allegations tha5t the disciplinary charges were brought against prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach for what appears to be her rather enthusiastic pursuit of the company owned by President Zuma’s financial benefactors, the Gupta’s, or because of her pursuit of that bastion of probity and honesty, Richard Mdluli, illustrate the dangers of the political “capturing of the NPA rather well.

Even if all these allegations are false, given the past abuse of the NPA many people will think them credible or even true. They will think it is true because the chickens have truly come home to roost for the politically much abused and subverted NPA. Who on earth is ever going to believe the protestations of the NPA that there is no political interference when there is such strong proof of on-going political interference at the NPA? I know, I won’t.

It is ironic that President Zuma, who complained bitterly about the abuse of the NPA by the Thabo Mbeki faction when he was facing corruption charges has overseen the further erosion of trust in this institution. I guess it was bad when the other guys were doing it, but now that he is in charge the principles are slightly different to suite the politics. But I guess he will only realise how the chickens have ccome home to roost if he loses his bid for another term as ANC and South African President and again faces the possibility of having to explain to a judge why he took a bribe from Schabir Shaik.

Source: Constitutionally Speaking

In South Africa the Rule of Law Does not Apply to the Political Elite

There is little disagreement that corruption is a serious problem facing South Africa. Unfortunately, various indicators suggest that the problem is getting worse. The annual Transparency Corruptions Perceptions Index is a useful measure of whether corruption is getting better or worse in 182 countries worldwide. Ten points indicate the absence of perceptions of corruption, while 0 means that the country is entirely corrupt. On this scale, in 2011 New Zealand scored closest to ten with a score of 9,5, while Somalia was rated as the most corrupt country in the world with a score of 1. The 2011 index reveals that South Africa registered its lowest score to date of 4,1 points when compared with our highest rating of 5,1 in 2007. Worryingly, we have dropped from 54th place in 2010 to 64th place in 2012 on the world rankings. The surveys from Afrobarometer – a public opinion survey focusing on Africa – have also shown that South Africans are increasingly concerned about corruption. While in 2008, 15% of adults thought that corruption was ‘an important national issue’, by 2011 this had increased to 29%.

In October 2011, the head of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), Willie Hofmeyr, told the National Assembly Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development that corruption involving government procurement was costing South Africa as much as R30 billion each year. To place this in perspective, this amount of money could increase the annual budget of the Department of Basic Education by 20%, the Department of Health by 25% or the entire criminal justice system by 30%. In short, if taxpayers’ money were not being stolen by, or with the connivance of, corrupt government officials and politicians, all South Africans could benefit from substantially more schools, hospitals and police stations staffed with better-paid doctors, teachers and police officers.

It is then fortunate that, officially at least, the government has identified corruption as a serious challenge and has set itself the objective of reducing corruption so as to ‘boost investor trust and willingness to invest in the country’. Towards this end it set the goal of prosecuting and convicting a hundred individuals that are suspected to have corruptly acquired assets worth more than R5 million by 2014. To achieve this the government has established the Anti-Corruption Task Team to coordinate the activities of various investigation agencies and the National Prosecution Authority (NPA). Although Hofmeyr pointed out earlier this year that at least 26 individuals meeting the government’s targeted profile are before the courts on corruption charges, its overall target is too ambitious given the handful of successful convictions achieved in the past few years.

The question is, why is the problem of corruption so large and damaging to South Africa if there is an official government policy to reduce it? The answer lies in examining the extent to which there is political will to take appropriate action against the most politically powerful and connected people.

When an ordinary citizen is alleged to have committed a crime such as corruption, the South African Police Service (SAPS) will identify that person as a suspect in a criminal matter. The SAPS will then use its legally provided investigative powers and resources to gather any evidence that will allow the suspect to be criminally charged and brought before a court. The suspect is given various rights and is entitled to having lawyers test the evidence so as to ensure that it is indeed correct and that the he/she is not being falsely accused. If the evidence is found wanting suspects will be acquitted and if not, may find themselves convicted and sent to prison.

It is the unfortunate reality that politically connected individuals are being protected from criminal justice processes. When Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele was found by the Public Protector to have engaged in conduct that was ‘improper, unlawful and amounted to maladministration’, he was not subjected to a criminal investigation. Rather, his friend and the person who appointed him to his post, President Jacob Zuma, appointed a board of inquiry to look into allegations of corruption and wrongdoing. However, unlike a police investigation, the board of inquiry could not subpoena witnesses, or access cellphone records and bank statements, as was the case in the investigation against convicted ex-SAPS Commissioner Jackie Selebi. The inquiry had no investigative powers and therefore could only consider evidence provided to it by willing parties. The recently leaked inquiry report therefore raised more questions than answers and apparently recommended that a full criminal investigation be undertaken into the matter. If Zuma implements this recommendation, it will be the first example of a senior politically connected person at a national level being subject to such an investigation under his administration.

Disturbing allegations emerged as a result of various investigations by the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations Unit (also known as the Hawks), that the Head of SAPS Crime Intelligence, Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli, and his close colleagues were implicated in a range of crimes including murder, rape, kidnapping, intimidation and wide-scale corruption. It is alleged that the Minister of Police halted all investigations into Mdluli and ordered that he be reinstated. Mdluli was irregularly appointed to his position after a cabinet ministers’ meeting two months after Zuma was sworn in as the President of South Africa. It has been alleged that this was because of Mdluli’s willingness to use his position to support Zuma to stay in power. Indeed, Mdluli has written letters to Zuma that state as much.

That the current acting SAPS National Commissioner Nhlanhla Sibusiso Mkhwanazi has recently re-suspended Mdluli is seen by many as a bold move to reject political interference in police matters, a move that could cost him his position. Current criminal investigations into Mdluli by the Hawks appear to have been taken despite political interference.

More recently we have read of allegations that the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, irregularly benefited from the Secret Service Account of the SAPS Crime Intelligence Division when R195 581.40 was used for renovations to his private residence. If this allegation is true, it may amount to unlawful conduct as the funds in this account consist of taxpayers’ money to be used for crime intelligence work only. The Minister of Police has denied that he benefited from the Secret Service Account and stated that he had asked the Auditor-General (AG) to investigate. As is the case with the board of inquiry into Cele, the AG does not undertake its work with the intention of gathering evidence to support or refute allegations of misconduct or criminality. Therefore the Minister is safe in the knowledge that he will not automatically be facing any criminal sanction from the AG’s investigation into the allegations against him. All the AG will be able to find with regards to wrongdoing is that money was misspent and recommend that further investigations be undertaken – a recommendation that could be ignored by the Minister, to whom the AG will report on this matter.

If politically connected individuals cannot be held accountable for criminal activity through the criminal justice system, there is little incentive for them to stop engaging in corruption and the problem will continue to worsen. Unfortunately, this appears to be happening as there is no political will to subject politically connected people at the highest levels of government to the criminal justice system when there are allegations of wrongdoing. So no matter how many ordinary people the government throws in jail, our country will continue to suffer the negative effects of corruption of state resources being used to benefit a handful of individuals.

Source: ISS

Why a South African Anti-Corruption Agency Must be Independent of the Police to be Effective

If it was not already clear why a dedicated anti-corruption agency capable of tackling powerfully connected people had to be independent of the South African Police Service (SAPS), the recent, and indeed ongoing failures of police leadership over the past few years should put this into perspective.

In 2010, ex-SAPS National Commissioner Jackie Selebi was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 2011, the SAPS National Commissioner, Bheki Cele, was suspended pending the outcome of an inquiry into his fitness for office. This followed a finding by the Public Protector that his actions in relation to a R1.67 billion police lease deal were ‘improper, unlawful and amounted to maladministration.’

In addition, one of the most powerful SAPS Divisional Commissioners, head of Crime Intelligence Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli, is facing an astonishing array of allegations implicating him and his close colleagues in murder, rape and wide-scale corruption. The National Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa has been accused of halting the Hawks’ investigation into Mdluli so as to protect him from further criminal charges, given Mdluli’s willingness to use his position to support Jacob Zuma’s intention to run for a second term as ANC president. Moreover, there are allegations emerging from investigations by the Hawks that Mthethwa illegally benefitted from the SAPS Secret Service Account to the tune of R195 581 for renovations to his personal residence, which was authorised by Mdluli.

Whether or not these allegations are ultimately proven, they have certainly severely undermined the public image of the police and further demoralised many of the honest hard working police officials expected to place themselves at risk in fighting crime. Moreover, such allegations point to reasons why the political elite might choose not to strengthen the independence and ability of the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigations (DPCI), commonly known as the Hawks, to investigate corruption committed by those at the highest levels of government.

In March 2011, the Constitutional Court, in the matter of ‘Hugh Glenister vs the President of the Republic of South Africa & others’, ruled that the legislation establishing the DPCI was unconstitutional and invalid. This was because the legislation failed to secure an adequate degree of independence for the DPCI, which was charged with investigating corruption amongst other serious priority crimes. The Court gave the government and parliament 18 months to rectify this shortcoming so as to ensure that South Africa would meet both its constitutional and international obligations with regards to establishing an independent agency that can effectively tackle corruption at all levels of society.

Not only do South Africa’s obligations require that we have an anti-corruption agency that is structurally and operationally independent, the Court ruled that it must also be seen to be independent by the public. It is therefore disappointing that the government appears to have ignored this opportunity provided by the Constitutional Court to establish a truly independent and effective anti-corruption unit.

The 18 months provided by the Constitutional Court was not used to widely consult and develop consensus about the best way to establish an independent and effective anti-corruption agency. Rather, six months before the deadline, the Minister of Police tabled the SAPS Amendment Bill before parliament that provided a minimalistic response to the Court’s findings.

The biggest shortcoming of the Bill is that the Hawks remain a directorate within the SAPS. Instead of establishing a truly independent anti-corruption agency, the Bill tries to provide a level of protection and additional authority to the head of the Hawks, by inter alia:

· allowing the Minister to appoint and dismiss the head of the Hawks so that they don’t have to report directly to the SAPS National Commissioner,

· allowing the head of the Hawks to decide on who may be seconded to assist the directorate from outside of the SAPS and,

· in the case of a dispute about which cases to investigate, having the authority to overrule the National Commissioner

Such provisions however, do not address the various ways in which the Hawks may continue to be subject to political interference and manipulation. The Constitutional Court found that the SAPS National Commissioner was inadequately independent because the Minister of Police could too easily appoint and remove the incumbent. In theory, and in practice, the SAPS National Commissioner is therefore a political appointee and, as has been recently alleged, subject to political manipulation. However, the draft legislation currently before parliament continues to allow the SAPS National Commissioner to determine the budget of the Hawks after consultation with its head, and to report on the budget before parliament. It does not take much effort to imagine that a Commissioner of Police under investigation by the Hawks might use his or her position to undermine the investigation, or to manipulate the head of the unit.

The Bill also gives the Minister of Police the authority to both appoint and initiate proceedings to dismiss the head of the Hawks, who may be suspended without salary before a disciplinary inquiry has been started.

Finally, the Bill maintains the head of the Hawks as a SAPS Deputy National Commissioner, who according to protocol will be expected to salute the SAPS National Commissioner. Hawk members will remain part of the SAPS in every way and will be subject to all its rules, regulations, resources and the dynamics of its organisational culture. How such a directorate will be seen to be truly independent by the general public is difficult to fathom.

These are but a few of the many reasons why, for an anti-corruption agency to be truly effective and independent, it will have to be a separate organisation from the SAPS. Of the 21 submissions made before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Police, 20 argued that the Bill fell short of what was required to effectively investigate corruption committed by South Africa’s political elite. We can only hope that the committee hears the concerns of civil society and frees the Hawks to hunt corruption wherever it may occur.

Source: ISS

How Poor Leadership Undermines the Work of the South African Police Service

The South African Constitution places the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the frontline against crime and obliges it ‘to protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic and their property.’ At one level, this has been taken seriously and in the last decade the SAPS has expanded to a huge organisation of more than 194 000 people, including approximately 160 000 trained police officials and around 34 000 civilian support staff. Its budget for 2012/13 is R62,5 billion, which represents 65,3% of the total criminal justice budget. However, in order for the police to be effective against crime, it has to ensure that the public has confidence in it. This will only occur if the SAPS leadership consists of men and women who are highly skilled professionals with the appropriate expertise and whose integrity is beyond reproach.

The question is whether the current state of leadership in the SAPS is able to ensure that the SAPS becomes the type of professional police agency that will be respected by all people.

There can be little doubt that the many examples of senior officers being implicated in criminal activity and corruption is eroding both public trust and police morale. Furthermore, it is demonstrative of the extent to which effective leadership is lacking in the SAPS. The leadership problem starts with who is appointed as the most senior and the most powerful police officer, the National Commissioner of Police. The previous national commissioner of the SAPS, Jackie Selebi, who had no experience in policing when he was appointed by then President Thabo Mbeki, made many poor decisions regarding the structure of the SAPS, for example closing down important specialised units. In 2010 he was convicted on a charge of corruption and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. In July 2009 Bheki Cele was appointed by President Jacob Zuma and like his predecessor, was not a career policeman, having previously served as a politician in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government.

Cele soon gained media prominence more for his often tactless, and some may argue, irresponsible public utterances than for his police leadership qualities. In 2011 the South African Police Union (SAPU) publicly accused him of nepotism, after the appointment of close family members and friends to senior positions in the police. These allegations followed shortly after the release of the report by the Public Protector in February 2011 into alleged irregularities relating to the leasing of office accommodation for the SAPS. The Public Protector found, inter alia, that Cele’s conduct in this regard was ‘improper, unlawful and amounted to maladministration’. In October 2011, almost eight months after the release of the report, President Zuma announced Cele’s suspension and the appointment of a Board of Inquiry to investigate, amongst others, whether he acted ‘corruptly or dishonestly or with an undeclared conflict of interest in relation to the two leases (police offices in Pretoria and Durban). The Board concluded its inquiry in the first week of April 2012 and the country now waits for its findings into whether Cele is fit to hold the position of SAPS National Commissioner.

The consequences of poor choice of leadership in the SAPS over the years are becoming abundantly clear. Allegations of ongoing irregularities relating to the business of the SAPS’ Supply Chain Management prompted President Zuma to request the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate possible corruption in the allocation of contracts handled by this division in August 2010. This investigation is not yet concluded, but since it began its work, three generals connected to Supply Chain Management took early retirement and another is currently suspended.

The Crime Intelligence Division has also for many years been fraught with allegations and reports of criminal conduct and abuse of power. For example, Mulangi Mphego, head of the division during Selebi’s term of office, was accused of various unlawful activities such as interfering with a key state witness, Glen Agliotti, during Selebi’s corruption investigation. This led to criminal charges being laid against Mphego and his subsequent resignation in 2009.

He was succeeded by the now infamous Lieutenant General Richard Mdluli, who appears to be protected at the highest level given that criminal charges of murder and corruption have been controversially withdrawn in spite of a large amount of evidence against him. Additionally, investigations into a substantial number of separate allegations of Mdluli’s involvement in corruption into misuse of the SAPS Secret Service Account have inexplicably been shut down.

A further example of how poor leadership at the highest levels is undermining the SAPS can be found with the sudden closure of the apparently successful Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit in Durban in March 2012. Members of the Cato Manor Unit were as recently as February 2012 praised by a judge in the Pongola High Court for their professional work on the case involving the ‘KZN-26’ gang, notorious for cash-in-transit heists, robberies and murder. This followed sensational claims made by a police officer charged with corruption that the unit was operating as a ‘hit squad.’ The unit was quickly closed down without the allegations against its members being properly investigated first. Of concern was that a notice of intended suspension was served on the provincial Head of the Hawks, Major General Johan Booysen to whom they ultimately report


The closing down of the unit and attempts at suspending Booysen must be viewed against the background of corruption and fraud charges being investigated by the Hawks against a prominent Durban businessman, Thoshan Panday. According to media reports the corruption charge followed the alleged attempt by Panday and Colonel Navin Madhoe from the SAPS KwaZulu-Natal Supply Chain Management in Durban to bribe Booysen with R2 million to assist Panday with the withdrawal of the fraud charges against him. It has been reported that KwaZulu-Natal SAPS Provincial Commissioner Monnye Ngobeni, had tried to halt the investigation into Panday. She became a subject of the Hawks investigations after it emerged that Panday had paid for her husband’s birthday celebration. Interestingly, the NPA declined to prosecute her, alleging that there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to prove that there was corruption involved in her relationship with Panday. Furthermore, the Sunday Tribune reported a link between Edward Zuma, a son of President Zuma, and Thoshan Panday. Apparently, Edward Zuma unsuccessfully attempted to exert pressure on Booysen to release a R15 million payment that was allegedly owed to Zuma by Panday and had been frozen as part of a criminal investigation.

Booysen successfully fought his suspension by approaching the Labour Court, which ruled that he had been unfairly suspended. However, the court order was ignored by powerful figures in the SAPS who went ahead with the suspension regardless. Booysen was then forced to approach the Labour Court a second time to have the suspension overturned once again and is back at work but facing an uncertain future.

Ongoing problems at the highest levels of the SAPS are starting to take its toll on station level police men and women. On 10 April 2012 The Star published an article titled, ‘Stress, frustration, wreck police force’, that pointed out how allegations of mismanagement at the highest levels has tarnished the image of the police and how it complicates the lives of ordinary police members. The negative impact of bad leadership on the morale of police members cannot be separated. A police service suffering from poor leadership and low morale cannot effectively perform its mandate. The situation has clearly deteriorated to the point where the credibility of police leadership at both a political and operational level have been so severely undermined that external intervention is sorely needed. The Minister of Police who would ordinarily be responsible for addressing leadership problems, now stands accused of interfering to protect Mdluli while also irregularly benefiting from the Secret Service Account to the tune of R195 000 for renovations to his private residence and lying about it to the media.

The ISS reiterates its call for a judicial commission of inquiry with strong powers of investigation and subpoena and the necessary resources to allow it to independently and authoritatively probe the allegations of corruption, their underlying causes and then to make practical recommendations for corrective measures. It is unfair to expect the many hardworking, honest men and women in uniform to place their lives on the line when those at the helm of the organisation have lost credibility.

Source: ISS

Crime Intelligence Head Saga Reveals a Growing Threat to the Rule of Law in South Africa

For the past few weeks, South Africans have been subjected to a number of disturbing media reports alleging political interference to cover up corruption affecting the highest levels of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). That these ongoing allegations have not been dealt with in an accountable and transparent manner bodes badly for the future of the country’s criminal justice system. The saga of this disturbing episode also sheds light on the nature of an emerging threat to the rule of law in South Africa.

Two months after Jacob Zuma was sworn in as president of South Africa on 9 May 2009, Richard Mdluli, was appointed as the national Head of the SAPS Crime Intelligence Division in the post of a Lieutenant-General. This placed him in one of the most powerful positions in the SAPS allowing him to oversee and direct the state’s capacity to gather both real-time and historical information on virtually any individual in the country. It then emerged that Mdluli’s appointment had been irregular as it was the result of inappropriate political interference. The SAPS Act of 1995 (chapter 4, section 6) requires that the National Commissioner appoint the deputy national and divisional commissioners. However, then Acting National Commissioner at the time, Lieutenant-General Tim Williams, revealed that Mdluli, was appointed by a panel consisting solely of four cabinet members without any police officials or experts on crime intelligence being present.

The Mail and Guardian has reported that Mdluli was appointed to this position because he assisted President Jacob Zuma escape various criminal charges. In particular, Mduli was alleged to have played a key role in the illegal leaking of confidential crime intelligence tape recordings to Zuma’s criminal defence lawyers. The tapes purported to be of the then NPA’s Head of the Directorate of Special operations (also known as the Scorpions) Leonard McCarthy allegedly discussing when to reinstate charges of corruption, money laundering, fraud and racketeering against Zuma with the ex-head of the NPA Bulelani Nguka. These tapes were made while Mdluli was the head of SAPS Crime Intelligence in the Gauteng Province and was allegedly paying a leading role in a police campaign to derail the corruption investigation and prosecution against then SAPS National Commissioner, Jackie Selebi.

The tapes were later used by then acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Mokotedi Mpshe to controversially withdraw 783 criminal charges against Zuma paving his way to assume the position of President of the Republic of South Africa. Zuma, through his spokesperson has denied that he had anything to do with the appointment of Mdluli.

During September of 2011, Mdluli was investigated by the elite Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations (also known as the Hawks) and charged with separate cases of murder and corruption. During his bail hearing Mdluli argued that the charges against him were motivated by a political conspiracy against him because he was seen as close to Zuma. To support this claim, he handed as evidence before the court a ‘ground intelligence report’, providing details about various senior ANC politicians. The report claimed that these leaders had held a meeting to discuss removing Zuma as party president at the upcoming 2012 ANC National Conference. Mdluli also handed to the court a letter he had written to Zuma requesting his assistance dated 11 November 2011, claiming that the criminal charges were as a result of a conspiracy against him by junior intelligence officers who had been aligned to previous president Thabo Mbeki.

The evidence before the court in Mdluli’s bail hearing, raises the concern that either most powerful SAPS Divisional Head or other officers were abusing their official police position and state resources with regards to internal matters of the ruling political party. A month after President Zuma received Mdluli’s letter, the NPA controversially withdrew the criminal charges against Mdluli and forwarded the docket to the Inspector General of Intelligence, Faith Radebe.

What made this a particularly controversial decision is that the NPA had commissioned an independent legal opinion, which found that there was sufficient evidence to criminally prosecute Mdluli. Moreover, the Mail and Guardian reported on a letter written by Radebe, on 19 March 2012 that stated, “We are of the opinion that the reasons advanced by the NPA in support of the withdrawal of the criminal charges are inaccurate and legally flawed. We therefore recommend that this matter be referred back to the NPA for the institution of criminal charges.”

The NPA refused to recharge Mdluli, stating that in their opinion there was insufficient evidence to charge him. This in spite of various recommendations to the contrary. Unfortunately, the NPA is already under a cloud following a range of controversial appointments to the senior echelons of the agency. The Supreme Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that President Zuma’s appointment of Menzi Simelane as the NDPP, was “irrational” considering the substantial evidence available that he was not a fit and proper person for this important position. Nevertheless, Zuma then appointed another tainted individual as the acting NDPP, Advocate Nomgcobo Jiba. Jiba’s credibility had been severely undermined following her suspension from the NPA pending a disciplinary hearing on charges of unprofessional conduct, dishonesty, fraud and bringing the NPA into disrepute in December 2007. This was in relation to her role in assisting the police obtain a warrant of arrest against Advocate Gerrie Nel, the lead prosecutor in the Selebi corruption case.

This attempt to interfere in the Selebi case was slammed by the High Court. Although suspended, Jiba had managed stay the disciplinary hearing against her by launching various court applications. During one of these legal challenges, Mduli had testified as a character witness on her behalf. Eventually, those leading the charges against her left the NPA and she was allowed to keep her job in a settlement in which she paid the NPAs costs. Current concerns about the credibility of the acting NDPP are that Jiba may feel a substantial degree of indebtedness to Zuma. Not only had Zuma overlooked Jiba’s chequered past when he appointed her to head the NPA, but he also used his presidential authority to expunge her husband’s, 2005 criminal conviction for stealing R193 000 from a clients trust while he was a practicing attorney.

In addition to the criminal charges against Mdluli, a subsequent separate internal SAPS Crime Intelligence investigation found evidence alleging that he was directly implicated in widespread theft and corruption involving the SAPS Secret Services Account. Allegations in the report included that Mdluli had irregularly employed at least 23 family members and friends, misused state vehicles, safe houses and state funds for his own benefit in addition to a range of other corrupt activities. Many were surprised when it was reported that the head of the Hawks, Lieutenant-General Anwar Dramat, had suddenly halted all criminal investigations into Mdluli and other members of the SAPS Crime Intelligence Division, allegedly on instruction from the current Acting National Commissioner, General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

The City Press then published a report alleging that Mkhwanazi had received an instruction from the Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa, to cease all investigations into Mdluli and to reinstate him to the SAPS National Head of Crime Intelligence. This past weekend, the City Press reported that that the Minister of Police himself is alleged to have illegally benefited from the Secret Service Account which was used to pay for R195 500 worth of renovations to the Ministers private residence. The Minister has publicly denied all allegations and stated that he would be requesting that the Auditor-General investigate these allegations.

Richard Mdluli is now back in his post with a large number of serious allegations hanging over his head, and the heads of the NDPP and the Minister of Police. All processes to examine any evidence supporting the allegations in an open and accountable manner have been halted without adequate explanation. The only official statement from the SAPS is that this is an internal matter and no further comment will be forthcoming.

The many honest, hard working police men and women who place their lives on the line fighting crime need to trust that those leading them are beyond reproach. Similarly, those who take to the courts each day to prosecute criminals in the interest of justice need to feel pride in their institution and what it represents. The only way to sort through the various allegations affecting those that are meant to lead the criminal justice system is for an independent judicial commission of inquiry to test the evidence behind the allegations in a transparent and fair manner. In this way, those that may have abused their positions can be identified and measures taken to prevent reoccurrence. This will restore faith in the criminal justice system. However, if these allegations are left unchallenged it will severely damage public trust in those in charge of the criminal justice system, and then without a doubt, the principle of the rule of law in South Africa is in deep trouble.

Source: ISS

President Zuma's phalanx of praetorian guards

Spy boss Richard Mdluli, whom Jacob Zuma "owes for his acquittal on rape charges", has emerged as part of a complex network "guarding" the president. President Jacob Zuma seems to be creating a personal shield and spear in the justice and security sectors: a phalanx of praetorian guards allied to him and to each other.

These connections appear to be driving key interventions, notably:

The withdrawal of murder and corruption charges against suspended police Crime Intelligence Service (CIS) boss Richard Mdluli;

The closure of the Hawks investigations into Mdludli and the broader abuse of CIS slush funds;

The suspension of Hawks KwaZulu-Natal commander Johan Booysen; and

The replacement of KwaZulu-Natal CIS head Deena Moodley by acting commander Brigadier Thuso Tshika.

The central member of this grouping appears to be Mdluli, with other key players clustered around him, including Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthethwa; acting police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi; acting national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) Nomgcobo Jiba; commercial crime prosecutions boss Lawrence Mrwebi; North West crime intelligence heavyweight Colonel Tsietsi Mano; and Mdluli murder case co-accused Colonel Nkosana “Killer” Ximba. “President Jacob Zuma believes he owes Mdluli for his acquittal in the rape case,” said one National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) source, while denying the correctness of this belief.

Whatever the truth may be, it appears that Mdluli himself is keen to hint at this connection. In his November 2010 top-secret report to Zuma setting out his allegations of a conspiracy against him, Mdluli says: “My relationship with Colonel Ximba is on a professional level, both politically and work related — Colonel Ximba is an active member of the ANC and during the struggle was a leader of one of the self-defence units — Colonel Ximba also played an important role in the Polokwane conference and also during the president’s trying times with his engagement with the NPA.”

According to reports, it was Mdluli who, following his appointment as CIS head in 2009, boosted Ximba up the ranks from constable to colonel. Mdluli appears to have been hand-picked by Zuma allies for the crime intelligence position and was appointed over the objections of then-acting commissioner Tim Williams.

Last year Williams, who has retired, spoke out against the appointment, telling City Press he regarded the appointment process as irregular and politically motivated. “He was appointed by the minister,” he said, referring to Mthethwa. In the run-up to his appointment Mdluli also played a key role in an apparent campaign against the Scorpions that united both the Zuma and Mbeki factions of the ANC.

One of Mdluli’s confidants, Colonel Tsietsi Mano, was called in to pursue the investigation of Gauteng Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel. Mano roped in Nel’s then-subordinate, advocate Nomgcobo Jiba, in a bid to have an arrest warrant issued against Nel on the eve of the planned arrest of Jackie Selebi.

When the NPA suspended and disciplined Jiba, Mdluli submitted a dramatic affidavit in her defence, revealing for the first time that crime intelligence had monitored the conversations of Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy and quoting extracts from the McCarthy transcripts. These intercepts were later leaked to Zuma’s attorney, Michael Hulley, and formed the basis for the NPA decision to drop charges against Zuma. According to evidence gathered for Jiba’s disciplinary hearing, she also roped in former KwaZulu-Natal Scorpions boss Lawrence Mrwebi, who had also become concerned at the allegedly partisan nature of the Scorpions investigations.

In November last year Zuma appointed Mrwebi to head the commercial crime division in the face of reports that then-director of prosecutions Menzi Simelane had recommended someone else. It was Mrwebi who in December 2011 ordered the withdrawal of fraud charges against Mdluli that had been investigated by the Hawks. Mdluli was accused of personally benefiting from discounts earned on the purchase of vehicles by crime intelligence. In doing so, Mrwebi overrode the views of Glynnis Breytenbach, and her opposition to the withdrawal of charges against Mdluli has been partly blamed for subsequent attempts to suspend her. A well-placed source said that Zuma had gone as far as attending a function held by Mdluli to celebrate the withdrawal of charges, though this could not be independently confirmed.

Neither presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj nor Mdluli’s lawyer responded to questions about Zuma’s meeting with Mdluli. After the December 2011 decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal that Simelane’s appointment was invalid, Zuma appointed Jiba as acting NDPP to replace him. Mano was also appointed to head a North West task team probing the 2009 murder of councillor Moss Phakoe, who had circulated an internal ANC dossier alleging Rustenburg ANC heavyweight Matthew Wolmarans was involved in corruption.

The investigation under Mano went nowhere but, according to a City Press report, there was a breakthrough in 2011 after Hawks investigators found the Phakoe docket during a raid on Mdluli. This could suggest that Mano withheld crucial information about a party official from all but Mdluli, who also sat on it. Mdluli also brought in Mano to trace the source of a report in the Sunday Independent in October 2010, which raised serious allegations of corruption and nepotism against Mdluli and suspended national police commissioner Bheki Cele.

The report appeared to have been sourced from disgruntled crime intelligence members in KwaZulu-Natal, and Mdluli instructed Mano to establish the source of the leaks against him. At the time he was given this sensitive task, Mano was out on bail in connection with his alleged involvement in the assault of a robbery suspect. He had also been slammed by a North Gauteng High Court judge for his alleged involvement in the torture of traditional healer Madimetja Phineas Kutumela, a suspect in the murder of Constable Francis Rasuge, who had disappeared in 2004.

Mano is understood to have laid the blame for the leaks at the door of a senior counterintelligence officer, but the KwaZulu-Natal complaints seem to have formed the basis for the recent purge of senior crime intelligence officers in the province, driven by acting national commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. Earlier this month, CIS provincial boss Deena Moodley was transferred out of crime intelligence and replaced by Brigadier Thuso Tshika.

Tshika, described by someone who knows him as “more of a politician than a policeman”, is a former MK operative.

Moodley is perceived as being close to Johan Booysen, the head of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal.

Booysen and Cele
Both minister Mthethwa and acting commissioner Mkhwanazi have been at the forefront of efforts to suspend Booysen, who on Thursday succeeded in having his suspension overturned in court for the second time.

The claim against Booysen is that he failed to act against members of the so-called Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit “death squad” that fell under his indirect command.

The unit, involved in a number of suspicious deaths, was disbanded by Mkhwanazi, but the move against Booysen is widely regarded a an indirect blow against Cele, of whom he was considered an ally.

It is understood that Hawks boss Anwa Dramat, to whom Booysen reports, believes there is no real case against him, but—as with the termination of the Mdluli investigation—has complied with Mkhwanazi’s instructions.

Panday and friends
The determination to unseat Booysen may, however, have more to do with the Panday case than with Cele. In court papers, Booysen claimed the campaign against him is driven by millionaire Durban businessman Thoshan Panday and the provincial supply chain police boss Colonel Navin Madhoe.

Booysen’s Hawks have been investigating the pair for allegedly massively inflating hotel bills for police accommodation sourced by Panday’s companies.

Panday appears to have powerful friends. Two independent sources, who declined to be named, have claimed that Zuma’s son Edward had attempted on several occasions to speak to Booysen about Panday.

Edward Zuma could not be reached for comment.

Another source, who also declined to be named but is regarded as close to Cele, said that Deebo Mzobe, a distant relative of President Zuma, had also sought to intervene on Panday’s behalf in a meeting with Cele.

Contacted for comment, Mzobe denied this. “No, that is not true,” he said. “We talk a lot with the commissioner [Cele]; we have a lot of things we discuss. I can’t say specifically what I go there to talk about.”

Mzobe denied he was in business with Panday. “Not at all; there is no business we are running together. I know him —we discuss [business], but we don’t have a particular business together.”

The M&G has identified at least three companies that show both Panday and Mzobe registered as directors. Mzobe, who is described as a “friend” of the president, is involved in the Masibambisane Rural Development Initiative with Zuma in Nkandla and elsewhere.

The project is controversial, as it is seen as using presidential influence to push state resources in the direction of favoured communities.

Source: Mail & Guardian

SCA: Simelane's appointment as NPA boss 'invalid'

The Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that Menzi Simelane's appointment by President Jacob Zuma as the director of public prosecutions at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), was invalid. The case was brought to the appeals court by the Democratic Alliance, after its bid to have Zuma's decision to appoint Simelane as the NPA boss set aside failed in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria last year.

On Thursday morning, Judge Mahomed Navsa ruled that Simelane's appointment was "inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid". The judgment set aside the findings of the North Gauteng High Court, and ordered the president, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe and Simelane to pay the DA's costs. In its application, the DA argued that Zuma "acted outside of his powers by appointing a person who is not fit and proper to hold the office of national director of public prosecutions".

Justice ministry spokesperson Tlali Tlali said the ruling would be challenged in the Constitutional Court. "Naturally, we are disappointed but respect the court's judgment in this matter," said Tlali on Thursday. "We will study the judgment in order to understand its implications as it unfolds further. The court's order must be referred to the Constitutional Court for confirmation as provided for in terms of section 172(2) of the Constitution. A final determination has yet to be made as to what our legal attitude to this matter at the Constitutional Court will be."

The DA's Dene Smuts told the Mail and Guardian on Thursday: "We are very delighted by the judgment. We had major problems with his appointment. We did not think he was fit and proper for the position. We felt it was cadre deployment and are now looking forward to the president putting someone in the position who is fit and proper for the job." The foundation of the DA's case against Simelane was the "misleading and untruthful evidence" he gave during the 2008 Ginwala Inquiry, when he was the director general in the department of justice and constitutional development.

The inquiry looked at the fitness for office of Simelane's predecessor, Vusi Pikoli. Ginwala severely criticised Simelane in her final report, calling him arrogant and condescending towards Pikoli. Ginwala labelled his evidence before the inquiry "contradictory and without basis in fact or in law" and blamed him for suppressing the disclosure of information. This specifically referred to a legal opinion advising Simelane that he did not have authority over the NPA, as he had claimed.

Simelane's conduct was "irregular" and Ginwala even suggested he might have contravened the NPA Act by drafting a letter to Pikoli that instructed him to abort the imminent arrest of former police boss Jackie Selebi.

Although a formal inquiry was set up to inquire into Simelane's conduct before Ginwala in February 2009, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe declined to take disciplinary proceedings against him. Instead he was appointed as deputy national director of prosecutions. The DA argued that Zuma made Simelane's appointment based solely on his CV, without taking into account his questionable behaviour during the enquiry.

Navsa found that Zuma was remiss in not taking the time to consider all the facts about Simelane, saying in his judgment: "I accept that the president must have a multitude of daily duties and is a very busy man. However when he is dealing with an office as important as that of the national director of public prosecutions, which is integral to the rule of law and to our success as a democracy, then time should be taken to get it right." He went on to say: "On the available evidence the president could in any event not have reached a conclusion favourable to Mr Simelane, as there were too many unresolved questions concerning his integrity and experience."

The judgment was careful to prove precedent for judicial scrutiny of the president's appointment of a public prosecutor. In recent months, Zuma and other members of the executive have made several statements taking issue with an "unelected" judiciary passing judgment on executive decisions. During a farewell to former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo earlier this year, Zuma said: "We must not get a sense that there are those who wish to co-govern the country through the courts, when they have not won the popular vote during elections." He added that the powers conferred on the courts could not be regarded as superior to the powers resulting from a mandate given by the people in a popular vote.

Source: Mail & Guardian

Can Cele stop SAPS rot?

A secret document intercepted by the SA police in London alerted National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele to the imminent outsourcing of the entire police forensics unit. "There was a huge document of completely outsourcing the department", he told Parliament yesterday. "A whole department? if we didn't find the document there would be no police forensics."

Cele said the document was signed on his behalf. This was one of several bombshells dropped by Cele before the National Assembly's police committee, where he and other top officials were called to explain ongoing supply chain management problems at the SA Police Force (SAPS). It comes after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe was instituted into the allegations of R4-billion in corrupt tenders in both the SAPS and in the Public Works Department, a Public Protector's probe into the media reports of a second R500-million police headquarters leased on a dodgy tender and the recent resignation of Cele's deputy, the divisional commissioner of supply management unit, Lieutenant-General Hamilton Hlela and two of his subordinates, Lieutenant-General Matthews Siwundla and his subordinate, Major-General Stephanus Terblanche.

Cele said the head of forensics has also since resigned, while his replacement had already fired five staff members. A range of corrupt activities are under the microscope. He told a story of extraordinary shenanigans in tender procedures and rampant outsourcing, which left the police virtually without internal capacity with several dodgy deals placed before him to sign in a hurry without due explanation, allegedly by Hlela, shortly after he took office a year ago. He said he was almost made to sign off on a R4bn private-public partnership deal to build a massive new headquarters in Pretoria, but refused. He also refused to sign a contract for the upgrade of his and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa's offices, even though the police were renting the building. He later found out that the lease on the current headquarters had been extended for 10 years, without his knowledge. While Cele painted himself as innocent, he revealed a sordid picture of a disabled SAPS with management and command and control systems, supply chain management, special projects all but collapsed.

The general also indicated that this may be the tip of the iceberg. MPs called the situation "the highest form of mismanagement", "disgusting", "shocking" and "discouraging". Cele said that if Parliament was a court, he would have had "to plead guilty", stressing that one year in the saddle was not enough to clean up "the mess". He called in the SIU in November last year after another contract was discovered which had been signed without his approval - this time for the manufacture of shirts for the police force.

Hlela yesterday denied that he had put any dodgy contracts before Cele. For instance, he said that the contract for the new R4bn headquarters had been signed off on by Cele's predecessor, Jackie Selebi. "He threw it out", said Hlela. MPs were concerned that the SAPS was poised to sign an agreement with Public Works to hand over its maintenance role of police properties to the SAPS, while it had no capacity. The police had a R13bn backlog in its own maintenance responsibilities, while some police stations being built since 2001 are yet to be completed.

The commissioner admitted frankly that much of the SAPS capacity had dwindled because many of the services had been outsourced. "Even our small capacity is arrested", he said. "For example, we have 34 bricklayers in SAPS, but they are not allowed to lay a brick. The work is given to brokers. There is a very popular broker in the (supply chain) department, Midway Two. The cost escalations come from there. It is a mad situation. That is why we have no capacity."

Gary Kruser, the new acting deputy commissioner in the supply chain management division, said Midway Two had won a host of tenders from the department. "We have an example where the cleaning services is done by the same company which owns the mechanics, building services and the same people who've got the Tetra network tenders (a R1 billion contract for an upgrade of Eastern Cape digital two-way radio systems). The same shareholders? all from the same company," he said. "I don't know how someone can be so efficient that they get all the tenders? I think we also need to have regular intelligence integrity checks on people to ensure integrity in tenders? I think not enough to have regulatory processes."

Public Works Department officials also stressed that the SIU investigation was drawing to a close and would feed into the Public Protector's report on the lease of the new headquarters. It is understood that the report will be completed by the middle of the month.

Source: IoL

Selebi files for leave to appeal his sentence

Former Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi filed papers applying for leave to appeal his conviction and sentence on Tuesday. Earlier this month Selebi was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He had until Friday this week to lodge papers.

The National Prosecuting Authority’s Mthunzi Mhaga confirmed they received Selebi’s documents. “That is correct that we have received Mr Selebi’s application for leave to appeal, which we will oppose and argue on dates which are yet to be arranged when the judge and both parties are available,” he said.

Source: Eye Witness News

Networks of corruption more complex than many think

The conviction of former national police commissioner Jackie Selebi raises questions about elite networks and their impact on corruption. I must hasten to state that, while elite networks may engage in the business of accumulating ‘the means of power‘, not all of them flirt with the criminal underworld. The Selebi case is an example of the intersection of interests between political, criminal, intelligence and business networks. Put differently, Selebi's conviction raises questions about the nature of corruption in post-apartheid South Africa.

If discussions on radio talk shows and letters to newspaper editors are anything to go by, corruption in this country is either an invention of the African National Congress (ANC) or became much worse after the 1994 democratic breakthrough. Corruption is, obviously, not an invention of the ANC. What is in dispute is whether the ANC government is more corrupt than the apartheid government was. What is indisputable is that there are greater levels of transparency today than was the case during the dark days of apartheid. Further, citizens are more critical of the manner in which State power is exercised in post-apartheid South Africa than they were before 1994. This is one of the dividends of democracy. The intellectual or emotional counterpart of the belief that the ANC is more corrpt than the National Party government is the view that the ANC was not corrupt during the liberation struggle. I do not know whether this is true or not, but I think that corruption may have been part of life in the ANC in exile and the underground.

When an organisation operates under conditions of illegality, the security measures it adopts may provide cover for those of its members who may be engaging in corrupt relationships. Also, some of its members may take the view that the means justify the ends of a just cause. When this happens, some members of organisations that are part of a just cause, or what they believe to be such a cause, may commit crimes or seek financial help from criminal networks in order to fund their operations. When the goals of their cause have been achieved, and they have become part of political elite networks and members of government, relationships that were established with the criminal underworld during the struggle may mutate into relationships between the new political elite and members of criminal syndicates.

Alternatively, it is possible that engaging in corrupt relations during the struggle becomes so much of a habit, because of the benefits, that breaking up with criminal elements becomes too hard to do. Another possibility is that new corrupt and more lucrative relations are created after the struggle to replace old ones. Add to this the impunity that comes with the arrogance of power and you end up dealing with individuals who see corruption as either reparations or something they are entitled to because of the sacrifices they made during the struggle for freedom. Is this what happened to Selebi, or is he correct when he says that his corruption case was politically motivated? I don't know, but I am open to the possibility that his involvement in corrupt networks, on the one hand, and the idea of of Selebi as a victim of political intrigue, on the other, are not mutually exclusive.

I am not arguing that the possibility of political intrigue should be seen as evidence of Selebi's innocence. All I am saying is that the judge was not wrong to convict him but, at the same time, Selebi is probably correct to allege that the corruption investigation was partly motivated by by the vagaries of politics. However, the lesson here is that allegations of skulduggery have a better chance of surviving the test of veracity when the victim is innocent. This notwithstanding, I have no doubt that the allegation of selective prosecutions is not completely false. It is for this reason that we must ask whether the mechanisms that are available at the moment for dealing with corruption are adequate. Do we not need to beef up our anticorruption architecture through the creation of bodies and institutions that will limit the possibility of interference by politicians and private actors?

Do we not need a special anticorruption vehicle that will operate outside the police service and the prosecution authority for a specified period? Such a vehicle could consist of a body of special investigators and prosecutors and report directly, and be answerable, to a specially created multiparty Parliamentary committee, over which the two Houses of Parliament would perform the overall oversight function. Or am I dreaming? Dreaming or not, I am convinced that networks of corruption in this country are much more complex than we tend to think and, therefore, require an equally complex and sophisticated response.

Source: Polity: Aubrey Matshiqi

Corruption is 'counter-revolutionary': Mbalula

Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, whose name was mentioned in the Brett Kebble murder trial this week, has warned ANC members against corruption.

"ANC members who falter and engage in corrupt activities, they themselves must be arrested and must be named and shamed as corrupt," Mbalula told reporters in Johannesburg. "People being corrupt... is counter-revolutionary," added the former leader of the ANC Youth League. He was briefing the media on the Imvuselelo (renewal) campaign in terms of which the ruling ANC aims to have one million members by 2012.

Mbalula was responding to a question on whether ANC members were allowed to tender for government contracts. "ANC members are not excluded from tenders," he said. "The ANC is a church, what we expect of ANC members, when they tender and run tenders, they must be exceptional." He said the ANC did not want "tenderpreneurs" who "defaulted in the tender process" and ended up delivering bad services, such as poorly built houses and roads. "They must not be tenderpreneurs; tenderpreneurs are corrupt people." Corruption was against the "principles and values of the movement", he added.

Mbalula was speaking a day after his name was mentioned in the High Court in Johannesburg, where convicted drug dealer Glenn Agliotti stands accused of killing Kebble. The mining magnate's butler, Andrew Minnaar, told the court Kebble had a separate cellphone for "Fikile of the youth league", which was used "to have confidential discussions".

The court also heard that former police commissioner Jackie Selebi was on Kebble's pay roll.

Source: Times live

More questions for Mbeki on Selebi

These are observations by Pierre De Vos, on his blog "Contitutionally Speaking"

Selebi has now been convicted and sentenced for corruption. However, it is unclear whether the full truth about the events surrounding the Selebi case - including the events that led to the suspension of former National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli after he issued an arrest warrant for Selebi – has been told.

On 9 November 2006, then President Mbeki wrote a letter to Pieter Groenewald, an MP in the National Assembly. Groenewald had written a letter on 7 November 2006, requesting President Mbeki to appoint a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate various allegations of corruption leveled against Selebi. In the letter, Mbeki declined to appoint such a commission and wrote:

Up to now nobody within the state structures has informed me that there are any investigations affecting National Commissioner Selebi that are being conducted by anybody, including the DSO, (the Scorpions). I am certain that if there was such an investigation, or such an investigation was contemplated, I would have been informed accordingly. In this regard. I must emphasise that if any of our law enforcement or intelligence agencies felt that they had information that justified such an investigation, I would encourage them to do their work without let or hindrance, in keeping with their legal mandate….

I have the greatest confidence in National Commissioner Selebi. I am certain that whatever the rumour mill is saying about him, he will continue to do his critically important work with the same diligence, dedication and selflessness he has shown ever since we appointed him as National Commissioner of the SAPS.

The conviction and sentencing of Jackie Selebi demonstrates that the confidence expresssed in Selebi in the second paragraph of the letter quoted above turned out to be misplaced. It has now also emerged that the claim made in the first paragraph of Mbeki’s letter is difficult (if not impossible) to square with the known facts. In paragraph 257 and 258 of the Ginwala Inquiry Report, Ginwala made the following findings:

It is not disputed that Adv Pikoli met with the Minister and briefed her on the investigation into the National Commissioner of Police on 13 separate occasions: In March 2006, in August 2006, on 9 November 2006, on 16 November 2006, on 11 March 2007, on 13 March 2007, on 17 March 2007, on 28 March 2007, on 8 May 2007, on 25 June 2007, on 11 September 2007, on 18 September 2007 and on 23 September 2007. Following these meetings he furnished the Minister with two written reports on 19 March 2007 and 19 September 2007.

It is also common cause that Adv Pikoli met and briefed the President on the investigation against the National Commissioner of Police on 10 occasions: In March 2006, in August 2006, on 9 or 10 November 2006, on 14 November 2006, on 20 November 2006, on 11 March 2007, on 9 May 2007, on 20 May 2007, on 15 September 2007 and on 16 September 2007. The evidence is that he gave the President written reports on 7 May 2007 and 16 September 2007.

President Mbeki was therefore briefed about the investigation against Selebi on at least two occasions before he wrote the letter to Groenewald in which he claimed that no one “in state structures” had informed him about any investigation (or pending investigation) against Selebi. In fact, Mbeki met Pikoli for a third time to discuss the investigation against Selebi on the very same day that he wrote the letter to Groenewald. As this was a letter and not a national televised speech, one will never know if Mbeki’s bottom lip quivered while he was writing this letter.

Source: Constitutionally Speaking: Pierre De Vos

'Don't be too hard on Selebi'

People shouldn’t be too hard on Jackie Selebi. He is actually just a metaphor of what has become of the ANC.

Just as tragic as it is that a man with such a proud history in the struggle for freedom and democracy became a cheap braggart, a charlatan and a crook, so is it heart-breaking that the movement of Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela has become a party dominated by greed, a lust for personal power, corruption and petty factionalism. Cynics, Afro-pessimists and right wingers say this was to be expected: most of the other liberation movements on our continent went the same way, Zanu-PF and the MPLA of Angola being prime examples.

I did not expect it. I am shocked every day at new manifestations of the rot in our ruling party. Yes, there were always elements in the ANC during the exile years whom one wouldn’t exactly call democrats and human rights activists. They fought for power, not democracy. But the decent men and women, people who really cared about human dignity and freedom, always dominated the ANC. Most of the best sons and daughters of our country during the last half century were products of the ANC.

This was why I thought our liberation movement would be different. I was wrong. Those decent people, those progressive leaders with whom I associated myself politically for many years, have disappeared into the quicksands of power and greed. The party is now dominated by cheap, lying populists who enrich themselves at the expense of the poor; by opportunists pushing their own interests; by Stalinists and reactionaries. The harder these types try to drive our country towards a bankrupt dictatorship, the more credibility some of the conspiracy theories are getting. Such as: the reason why the ANC is manipulating the judiciary and the National Prosecuting Authority and why it is now pushing two draconian measures to severely limit press freedom, is to make it possible for them to steal more from the people and to hide their own scandals.

Even the theory that the ANC is deliberately sabotaging land reform and redistribution is gaining credibility: they want to pull a Robert Mugabe when it’s popularity among the masses is waning; blame the whites as the common enemy and use land as an emotive issue to unite blacks behind them. I have no doubt in my mind that those ANC leaders who are pushing the proposals for a statutory media tribunal do not believe for one moment that it would improve our newspapers one iota. They know, as we should all know, that it’s only result will be an end to the free flow of information to the voters.

I have been waiting in vain for my comrades of yesteryear to stand up and stop this assault on our democracy. Evil happens when good men remain silent. The vast majority of South Africans have proved that they deserve better than the present leadership of the ANC. But when will this majority start realising that it is their democratic right to show this dangerous clique the red card?

Source: News 24: Max du Preez