Leaked report: review sought

Minister of Police Bheki Cele has slammed a leaked public protector report finding that he and the SA Police Service (Saps) have put whistle-blowers in the case of the murder of Sandiso Magaqa, a former ANC Youth League secretary-general and councillor of Umzimkhulu Municipality, in danger.

It was reported on Wednesday the two whistle-blowers have been exposed to the possibility of murder due to Saps negligence. The allegations, which are also levelled at Cele, are in a report from the office of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, which has not yet been made public.

Now, Cele has released a statement in response. He said he received the report that probes allegations of “undue delay and gross negligence which could have resulted in loss of lives, maladministration and improper conduct by the minister of police and the Saps”.

Cele said in the statement: “It is worth noting that the report has not been made public. However, it is strange that it has been leaked. This leak is not consistent with the integrity of the office of the public protector in handling such matters.”

The minister said he had “serious reservations” about the findings and the remedial action proposed. He had, therefore, “instructed Saps management to internally and procedurally work on the report for the purposes of launching an application for a judiciary review of it”.

The report states: “The failure by the minister of police and the Saps to provide security protection for Messrs [Les] Stuta and [Thabiso] Zulu exposes them to the risk of being assassinated. It also exposes the Saps and the government to a risk of unnecessary legal claims and financial losses as their families could claim against the government for damages, should they be assassinated.”

Zulu, an ANC member, anticorruption activist and friend of Magaqa, and Stuta, an official at Harry Gwala Municipality, lifted the lid on the alleged reasons for the murder at Magaqa’s funeral. Since then, Zulu and Stuta have received many death threats.

Magaqa and colleagues Nontsikelelo Mafa and Jabu Msiya were shot in Umzimkhulu in July 2017. Magaqa died in September 2017 and Mafa and Msiya survived.

After calling on the police to no avail, Zulu approached the public protector. She wrote to the former minister of police, Fikile Mbalula, and then State Security Agency (SSA) minister Bongani Bongo, in mid-November 2017, asking them to conduct threat assessments on the pair. Both ministers said it would be done.

However, the Saps only did the assessments in mid-December and the report states Mkhwebane had still not received them.

The SSA assessment, which found the whistle-blowers needed urgent protection, was only done in April. – Citizen reporter/ANA