‘Blackmail’ twist in row over former Hawks boss
THE fight between Police Minister Fikile Mbalula and former Hawks boss Berning Ntlemeza has turned dirty — with allegations of blackmail and counter-allegations of interference in police investigations.
The Sunday Times has learnt that Ntlemeza paid three visits to Mbalula in the days after his appointment on March 31, allegedly claiming to have files that could compromise the minister and saying he should be allowed to remain in his job “to manage the situation”.
Well-placed sources in the police said Ntlemeza had told Mbalula that he could “handle” the case involving his wife Nozuko’s alleged involvement in fraud and corruption in the Free State, which the Hawks are investigating.
He allegedly also told Mbalula that he could make another corruption investigation into the minister himself disappear.
Mbalula, on the other hand, is said to have requested the police files on his wife two weeks after his appointment.
Ntlemeza is fighting to hold on to his job after the High Court in Pretoria found that he was unfit to hold office and declared his appointment unlawful. He is appealing the judgment.
Ntlemeza confirmed he met Mbalula shortly after his appointment, but denied that he tried to blackmail the minister. His lawyer, Comfort Ngidi, said: “The general does not discuss matters which are a subject of investigations with anybody including the previous, present or future ministers. Such discussions as alleged by you never happened and shall not happen in the future.
“After the appointment of the new minister, the head of Hawks had to bring the minister up to speed.
“So the meeting was about briefing the new minister.”
Mbalula declined to comment, but did not deny or confirm that Ntlemeza had tried to blackmail him.
“Ntlemeza has approached the courts,” Mbalula said.
“Whatever he says about the minister in those court papers is a matter I have addressed from day one . . . It is the courts that
have passed an order that he is unfit.”
Ntlemeza is also said to have asked Hlaudi Motsoeneng to persuade Mbalula to keep him on as head of the Hawks. Motsoeneng, who is implicated in the Free State corruption allegations with Mbalula’s wife, apparently visited Mbalula following the request.
The suspended SABC strongman declined to comment . “No, no . . . I can’t comment on this,” he said.
Police sources said that during one of the meetings Ntlemeza told Mbalula that he was trying to save him from a Hawks probe into an alleged R1-million payment from murdered North West businessman Wandile Bozwana to radio celebrity Thabo “Tbo Touch” Molefe to fund a trip for Molefe and Mbalula to the US two years ago.
But sources in the Hawks said that Mbalula, on the same day he named Yolisa Matakata as acting head of the unit, had demanded the police file into Nozuko be handed to him personally.
Mbalula dismissed the claims as a “smear to tarnish my name”.
Data shows the file was retrieved from the Hawks computer system on March 16, two weeks before Mbalula’s appointment as police minister. He apparently requested the file on April 13.
The Hawks are investigating fraud and corruption allegations involving Nozuko, Motsoeneng and others relating to R1billion they received to build houses in the Free State.
In January the Sunday Times reported how court papers revealed that Motsoeneng and Nozuko, as trustees of the Imbuma Trust and MM Development Trust, received millions of rands in 2010 and 2011 to build low-cost houses in Virginia and Bloemfontein.
Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi denied that Mbalula had demanded the file, but said it had been moved from Bloemfontein.
“It is not true that the minister of police asked for any file from the Free State department of housing as is being alleged. The said file was taken from the Free State by a known individual. It landed in the office of...Matakata.”