Cele asked to probe City’s special unit
GOOD Party’s Herron wants it disbanded
POLICE Minister Bheki Cele has been asked to investigate the legality of the City’s Safety and Security Investigation Unit (SSIU), which was until recently known as the Special Investigation Unit (SIU).
The request was contained in a letter from GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron, who also wants the unit dismantled.
Last night Police Ministry spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said it had not yet received the letter.
Herron, who also addressed his request to national police commissioner Khehla Sitole, said the City had a policing/intelligence structure that operated outside the parameters of the Police Act and, unlike the municipal police service, was not subject to provincial oversight.
“The SIU (or SSIU) is a rogue and dangerous arrogation of unlawful policing, security and intelligence powers by the City,” Herron said.
He said the City and Community Safety MEC claimed the unit was not part of the Municipal Police Service.
“In reply to my parliamentary questions about the activities of the SSIU the MEC said: ‘The SSIU does not fall under the Municipal Police Service, therefore the SSIU is not within the oversight mandate of the Department of Community Safety’.
“According to both the Western Cape Safety Plan, and the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (Leap) report to the Cape Town Council, the safety plan includes the employment of 150 investigators and these investigators will be deployed to the City’s SSIU.”
The Leap plan indicated that the SSIU would focus on shadow probes of criminal cases and that its team would be responsible for information and intelligence gathering, Herron said.
“I am requesting that the national commissioner and the minister intervene in terms of the Police Act,” he said.
Herron said the SSIU was headed by former police intelligence officer Reynold Talmakkies.
Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith said: “We’ve obtained legal opinion that confirms that SSIU functions well within the law and is the same as the investigative units in Johannesburg created under the ANC there. SSIU has never reported to a politician and reports to an executive director as do all other line departments.”
Leader of the opposition in the legislature, Cameron Dugmore (ANC), said the SSIU should never have been created in the first place. He said all indications were that it had actually become a shield to protect corrupt City councillors and officials.
Regarding the ongoing court case and investigation into allegations of fraud and corruption in the City’s Housing Maintenance department, of which Talmakkies is also allegedly involved, Dugmore said: “This self-created City SSIU is part of the corruption problem. All indications are that it had actually become a shield to protect corrupt City councillors and officials.
“On July 6, 2021, I wrote to the national SIU and on the basis of information that I shared with them, requested them to consider approaching the president to issue a proclamation to investigate the City.”
He said he would write again to the SIU requesting a progress report on his request.
In September 2017, it emerged that the SSIU had conducted murder and attempted murder investigations, including the murder of DA councillor Xolile Gwangxu, who was shot dead in Philippi in June that year. When then mayor Patricia de Lille heard about the units criminal investigations she ordered it be shut down on the basis that it acted outside the City’s policing mandate. After De Lille resigned in 2018, the unit was reinstated.
ANC provincial community safety spokesperson, Mesuli Kama, said the mayor should take action and have Talmakkies suspended immediately.