McBride aims to tilt inquiry against her, says Phiyega
Suspended national commissioner denies protecting KwaZulu-Natal police chief
SUSPENDED national police commissioner Riah Phiyega has queried her successor’s decision to haul KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni before a board of inquiry into her fitness to hold office following allegations of misconduct and corruption.
Phiyega, who last week was accused by suspended Independent Police Investigative Directorate head Robert McBride of protecting Ngobeni, said that as far as she knew, an internal investigation into allegations against Ngobeni had been abandoned after her suspension.
Last week, Ngobeni was served with a letter informing her of the inquiry as well as the intention to suspend her for allegedly attempting to thwart a Hawks investigation into a R60-million police accommodation tender from the 2010 Soccer World Cup involving Durban businessman Thoshan Panday, who allegedly paid for a swanky party for her husband.
McBride accused Phiyega of failing to act against Ngobeni and, in effect, of protecting her in the face a damning Ipid report on the matter.
He wrote to Phiyega in February last year asking her to suspend Ngobeni for allegedly making attempts to get Major-General Johan Booysen, head of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal, to drop an investigation into the allegedly inflated tender for World Cup police accommodation.
But Phiyega said the latest allegations by McBride were part of a campaign to vilify her ahead of next month’s inquiry into her fitness to hold office, which was recommended by the Marikana commission of inquiry.
“This is meant to interfere with the inquiry I am going to, so that they see a very, very bad person who does not know how to manage.”
Phiyega said that after she received the Ipid report, she was initially conflicted because her office had been told by the National Prosecuting Authority in KwaZulu-Natal that it would not pursue criminal cases implicating Ngobeni.
“The NPA had given reasons in a report for declining to prosecute. She [KwaZulu-Natal director of public prosecutions Moipone Noko] outlined certain transgressions . . . I then had to do my own investigation because there are two written reports negating each other,” she said.
Phiyega produced a series of letters between herself and McBride, as well as between herself and the Department of Public Service and Administration, outlining an internal process to investigate the allegations in the Ipid report.
By the time she was suspended, the department had confirmed that a senior Western Cape official was available to investigate the problem SUSPECT: KwaZulu-Natal commissioner Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni is said to have thwarted a Hawks inquiry
This is meant to interfere with the inquiry, so that they see a very, very bad person who doesn’t know how to manage
presented by the two reports, she said.
“It is not true that we did not do anything. McBride gave me a report and upon receipt of it I followed our processes. We have our own internal disciplinary regulations and rules upon receipt of the report. We are not instructed what to do,” she said.
Ngobeni and the eight other provincial commissioners were grilled by parliament’s oversight committee on the police for writing a letter to parliament pledging their support for Phiyega after the Marikana commission’s finding against her. Since Phiyega’s suspension, six provincial commissioners have been moved to other positions, the latest being the Eastern Cape’s Celiwe Binta, who has reportedly been told her contract will not be renewed.
Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, spokesman for acting national commissioner Khomotso Phahlane, said he would not comment. “This is a matter between an employer and employee and as such we have to respect processes that are taking place internally. We would not call for a board LETTERS: Suspended Ipid boss Robert McBride of inquiry if we were not sure,” he said.
McBride yesterday stood by his assertions, saying that by the time Phiyega was suspended in October last year, she had not taken action against Ngobeni. “If she claims she had started a process, it was a paper exercise, merely ticking the boxes in the event of being queried later on. The simple truth is Phiyega has not done an investigation.”
This week, Ngobeni’s husband, Major-General Lucas Ngobeni, speaking on behalf of his wife, said he did not know what had become of the investigation. “We submitted our response to the acting national commissioner on Thursday. We are challenging the McBride report, which we are saying is flawed. We know that the report was written by Booysen and was just signed by McBride. In the report, McBride says my wife received gratification from Thoshan Panday. As far we are concerned, that case is done and dusted.”