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From left to right: Police Minister Bheki Cele. (Photo: Gallo Images / Darren Stewart) | National Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Khehla Sitole. (Photo: Gallo Images / Darren Stewart) | The former director of the Independent Police Investigations Directorate, Robert McBride. (Photo: Leila Dougan)
President Cyril Ramaphosa intervened to retrieve from National Police Commissioner Khehla Sitole recently declassified documents relating to an alleged attempt to defraud the SAPS secret criminal intelligence fund of R45 million ahead of the ANC’s elective conference in Nasrec in December. of 2017.
Writing to Sitole on February 12, 2021, Police Minister Bheki Cele noted that in light of a scathing judgment by the Pretoria High Court on January 13, 2021, a communication had been received “from the Presidency” in relation to the matter.
“With respect to the recent judgment of the Superior Court in the matter between Vuma [Lieutenant-General Francinah Vuma] and others v IPID [the Independent Police Investigative Directorate], The Honorable President has asked me to respond to certain questions regarding the sentence, ”Cele wrote.
Cele said that “to date” he had not been informed by SAPS management about the outcome and the implications of the ruling for SAPS.
Due to the “urgency and seriousness” of the matter, Cele told Sitole: “I hereby direct you to provide me with a full report on all I-View matters and the implications for SAPS, including your own involvement and all the other superior officers who were cited in the judgment of the Superior Court “.
On January 13, 2021, the Pretoria High Court rendered a severe judgment ending a three-year setback by SAPS against legitimate attempts to IPID (then run by Robert McBride) to obtain documents related to the attempted acquisition.
Judge Norman Davis’ ruling pointed to a possible serious abuse of state resources by senior law enforcement officials who sympathize with former President Jacob Zuma, who backed Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma in the leadership race.
SAPS it consistently refused to declassify documents related to what has been called the “captive” acquisition, as well as two other dubious deals by SAPS Crime Intelligence, then headed by Zuma Bhoyi Ngcobo’s appointed brigadier.
All those who attended the clandestine meeting at a Pretoria hotel on December 13, 2017, refused to be held accountable for their presence, and all have consistently maintained the matter related to South Africa’s “national security”.
The meeting was caught on the hotel’s CCTV cameras when IPID and McBride received a tip. After McBride contacted Sitole, payment was blocked to I-View, a company whose director is Inbanathan Kistiah and which was in commercial bailout at the time.
Those who were at the meeting were Sitole; Lieutenant general Francinah vuma, Divisional Commissioner: Financial Management and Administration; Lieutenant General Lebeona Tsumane, Deputy National Commissioner: Crime Detection; and then acting chief of criminal intelligence general Bhoyi Ngcobo, recently appointed to the post by Zuma.
Also attending the meeting was Bo Mbindwane, an advisor to then-Police Minister Fikile Mbalula.
In Vuma’s presentation to the high court, he revealed that the instruction to investigate an alleged “possible threat to national security” had come from Zuma, then still president of the ANC and the country, after being informed by “the minister of security”. group”.
Vuma said:
“During December 2017, information was received about a possible threat to national security, which was associated with the National Conference of the ANC that was to be held in Johannesburg.
“The Minister of the Security Group then informed the Presidency about the threat. Then the Third Applicant, the National Police Commissioner assigned me and the Second Applicant [Tsumane] to deal with the threat even more.
“When assessing the threat, it became clear that special equipment had to be purchased to deal with the threat. All available service providers that were contacted were unable to provide equipment [sic] and services to address the threat of that magnitude.
“A service provider that could deal with a threat of that magnitude was identified by stakeholders in this field of intelligence gathering.
“Then, on December 13, 2017, a meeting was convened to discuss, among others, the threat and the acquisition of the necessary equipment [sic] and services to address the threat. “
The nature of the threat to national security has never been revealed.
Now Ramaphosa has asked that the Vuma / Sitole affair be reorganized in the hierarchy.
The day comes when the vice president of the court, Raymond Zondo, petitioned the Constitutional Court to find Zuma guilty of contempt of court and sentence him to prison after Zuma refused to appear before the commission.
Cele has been placed in an interesting sandwich as it was who, relying on a letter from a discredited IPID investigator turned CI informant, Cedrick Nkabinde, convinced the ANC members of the Police Portfolio Committee not to extend McBride’s contract as head of IPID.
McBride had been very insistent on the investigation and, in fact, it was a notice received by IPID that led to the settlement being hastily shelved.
Back in 2019 Daily maverick wrote about the scathing attack on McBride by an ANC committee member Leonard Ramatlakane, who claimed that McBride’s accusation was “a red herring” and “devoid of truth.”
“I don’t know about this captor. It’s stupid. How can the grabber work in the ANC conference? We don’t need a grabber to vote at an ANC conference, ”Ramatlakane said before all the ANC committee members opted to oust McBride.
The curious, harrowing and puzzling case of the ANC against Robert McBride
In fact, the way the committee turned against McBride was staggering enough to notice.
It was Cele, at the time, who had also insisted that the attempted purchase of the captor was in fact a matter of “national security” and not of acquisitions. It is an opinion that the Pretoria High Court has completely discredited in law.
So here Cele is writing now in 2021 to Sitole following Ramaphosa’s instructions.
“All legal costs that have been spent so far on this matter must be provided, as well as a copy of the approval document authorizing the legal costs in the litigation,” Cele wrote.
The report, Cele told Sitole, “must be submitted within 24 hours from the date of this letter.”
Answer the questions of Daily maverickBrigadier Vish Naidoo, a spokesman for Sitole, said: “Any communication between the minister’s office and the national commissioner’s office will remain between the minister and the national commissioner.” DM
