Cele opts for Busi review
Minister rejects Magaqa report
A report by public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has found that the failure by police minister Bheki Cele and the SAPS to provide protection to whistleblowers on corruption and political killings in KwaZuluNatal was grossly negligent.
However, Cele’s office said yesterday that the minister intended to challenge the report.
“Minister Cele has serious reservations on the report’s findings and the proposed remedial actions by the office of the public protector.
“Minister Cele has since instructed the SAPS management to internally and procedurally work on the report for the purposes of launching an application for a judicial review of the report‚” Cele’s spokesperson Reneilwe Serero said in a statement.
Serero said this was done “in light of the dire consequences for the ministry of police and the SAPS‚ if this report is left unchallenged‚ especially on the operation of the protection and security services”.
In a report dated August 10‚ Mkhwebane found that Cele and the police’s failure to protect two men who blew the whistle on corruption – which they claimed was behind the murder of former ANCYL secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa – could have resulted in the assassination of the two men.
The whistleblowers‚ Thabiso Zulu and Les Stuta‚ testified before the Moerane Commission of Inquiry into political killings in KwaZuluNatal in November.
In their testimony‚ they claimed Magaqa had passed documentation to the Hawks that allegedly proved corruption in the tender for upgrading Umzimkhulu Memorial Hall‚ which ballooned from R4-million to R37-million.
Following death threats and a lack of action from the police‚ Zulu sought the intervention of the public protector.
This was followed by a threat assessment conducted by the State Security Agency in April‚ which found that Zulu and Stuta were being followed and that they were at risk. The assessment advised that the two “urgently require protection from the state” and should be provided with “individual private protection”.
But four months later‚ the police have still failed to provide security.
Reads the report: “The minister of police and the SAPS’s conduct in dealing with my request to provide protection to the two whistleblowers can only be described as grossly negligent – and a slap in the face of the very people that members of SAPS are employed to protect.”
Mkhwebane said the conduct of the minister and police constituted improper conduct‚ undue delay‚ gross negligence and maladministration.
As appropriate remedial action‚ she recommended that President Cyril Ramaphosa reprimand Cele “for his lapses in judgement”.
In order to avert such incidents from happening in the future‚ the report advises Ramaphosa to ensure that ministers “take heed of the warnings of this nature to avoid catastrophic results that may occur due to lack of insight and non-action by members of the executive who are responsible for various departments and other organs of state”.
Zulu and Stuta would have to be “provided with the requisite security at state expense‚” said Mkhwebane.
Cele was also ordered to implement the recommendations of the threat assessment within seven days of the release of the report.