Axe these listeriosis legionnaires
Former president Jacob Zuma’s keepers, who kept him in power and out of the dock for a decade, may be President Cyril Ramaphosa’s biggest challenge as he attempts to free the country from the rot that set in during an era most South Africans would want to
They are hooked like listeria microbes to the intestines of our law enforcement agencies: the former president’s keepers that have kept him in power and out of prison for a decade. This is going to be one of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s main challenges: to unhook their noxious teeth and extract them in one major procedure from the rotten carcass on which they have feasted.
If he fails to do so, these agencies — the South African Revenue Service, the Hawks, police crime intelligence, the NPA and the State Security Agency — will remain diseased, impotent and unstable.
They will fail to bring the state capturers to book, the former president and his cronies will walk free, the revenue service’s R50-billion shortfall will grow, organised criminals will continue to reign supreme without fear of prosecution, and Ramaphosa will have to watch his back as a political listeriosis attack might be imminent.
Zuma appointed them to top positions in law enforcement — not because of their ability to catch and convict crooks, fill the state coffers to pay 17 million social grants, or safeguard the integrity of the state, but because they had to protect, shield and shelter him and his cronies and turn a blind eye to state looting.
Many are useless and have scant skills for the positions they occupy. Instead of bringing justice to a country crying for the scalps of the state’s looters, they have assisted their No 1 in hollowing out the law enforcement agencies. I can name many, but these are the top brass of the listeriosis legionnaires: SARS commissioner Tom Moyane, SSA director-general Arthur Fraser and national director of public prosecutions Shaun Abrahams.
They must go immediately. You don’t rehabilitate delinquents; you cast them out. Ramaphosa has learnt a hard lesson with Malusi Gigaba by affording him a second chance. Don’t shift them, get rid of them.
No hidden agendas
The president did brilliantly in bringing in Nhlanhla Nene, who is diligent, astute, knowledgeable and has no hidden agendas. This stands in sharp contrast to Moyane, whose highest office in government previously was prisons boss. He had also reached retirement age and had no tax experience.
Under his reign, SARS stopped investigations into Zuma, his cronies, his son, his nephew and the Guptas. In doing so, he disbanded the five investigative units of SARS after one of them was deviously branded as being “rogue”.
Under Moyane’s watch, SARS drove from office some of this country’s most dedicated, diligent and skilled civil servants. More than 50 senior SARS managers resigned within a year, and gone are the days of financially crippling organised criminals like Lolly Jackson, Radovan Krejcir and Glenn Agliotti.
Imagine if we had the “old” SARS under the leadership of Ivan Pillay, when the Financial Intelligence Centre in 2016 cited 72 suspicious Gupta transactions, totalling R6.8-billion?
Pillay and his audit and investigations units would have been onto the suspected money-laundering activities like a flash. They would have frozen bank accounts locally, applied to do the same overseas and would have engaged the Hawks to assist in a criminal investigation.
The Guptas should have been stopped then. Instead, their looting continued unabated. When the Hawks finally stirred to life following the election of Ramaphosa, the Guptas and their money were gone and most of the evidence probably destroyed.
Notorious gangsters
Moyane has also failed to collect the taxes of three notorious gangsters: Cape gangland leader Mark Lifman, Chinese businessman Robert Huang and cigarette smuggler Adriano Mazzotti.
When he took over, they were ready to be taken down. The “old” SARS had conducted extensive audits into them and presented them with a combined tax bill of R2-billion — which would now have doubled because of penalties and interest.
Why have their tax bills not been settled? Is it because Huang appointed Khulubuse Zuma as chairman of his company and imported T-shirts for the ANC during the 2014 elections? Or because Mazzotti supported Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s election campaign against Ramaphosa? Or because Lifman was a VIP guest at Zuma’s birthday rally?
SARS had a R30-billion shortfall in Moyane’s first tax years and a R50-billion deficit in the most recent tax year. (Wouldn’t the Huang/Lifman/Mazzotti tax contributions have come in handy now, Mr Moyane?)
Moyane and SARS blame economic conditions, but in a recent briefing to parliament, the National Treasury’s deputy director-general on tax said it was not true to say it was only the economic cycle because there were “administrative challenges” in SARS.
Bled the fiscus dry
State-owned enterprises have bled the fiscus dry and therefore we cannot afford another tax year with Moyane in charge of SARS. It might affect the state’s ability to pay 17 million social grants.
Just this week, Daily Maverick presented evidence that he might have lied to parliament about his investigation into his second-in-command, Jonas Makwakwa. The FIC flagged Makwakwa and his girlfriend in 2016 for “suspicious and unusual” cash payments, totalling more than R1.3-million, into a series of bank accounts.
Moyane sat on the evidence for four months and instead of calling in the Hawks, he shared it with Makwakwa. Daily Maverick has reported that the half-hearted disciplinary hearing against Makwakwa had no relation whatsoever to the damning financial report. Makwakwa’s year-long suspension was nothing but paid leave and now he’s back on the job. He should be booted out with Moyane.
Corruption Watch has laid criminal charges against Moyane for failing to report Makwakwa’s possible acts of criminality. Ramaphosa should suspend Moyane and appoint an acting commissioner.
Ramaphosa can only hope to restore the tax collector to its former glory by bringing back the “old guard”. This is also true of the NPA, the Hawks and state security. I’m aware that Ramaphosa envoys have already spoken to the likes of Ivan Pillay and former investigations head Johann van Loggerenberg to return to SARS. The latter, having gone to hell and back over attempts to smear him and his units as “rogue”, is not eager.
Pillay will go back. He, like Pravin Gordhan, is a disciplined and dedicated cadre of the ANC who will resume his old duties if called upon.
Decimated the Hawks
Bouts of acute listeriosis have also decimated the Hawks and droves of astute investigators have left the unit. It commenced with the departures of former Hawks head Anwa Dramat and the Gauteng head, Shadrack Sibiya. They were later joined by KwaZuluNatal head Johan Booysen. The three were “extracted” from the service because of their determination to investigate and charge Zuma cronies.
Under the leadership of Berning Ntlemeza (the high court found his appointment to be irrational and irregular), it was turned into a lame-duck unit intent on protecting political interests.
Ntlemeza, in turn, appointed a host of new provincial Hawks heads. Among them are people with scant or no police experience, like Gauteng head Prince Mokotedi, who left the NPA under a cloud.
An avid Zuma keeper, Mokotedi made a fool of himself last year when, without any credible evidence, he laid charges of treason and espionage against Independent Police Investigative Directorate head Robert McBride, forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan and Sibiya.
Police Minister Bheki Cele is the right man to rebuild the police and get rid of the rot, but it is going to be a long and arduous task. It is not easy to get rid of dead wood in the civil service.
The Hawks have slowly stirred from their slumber after Ramaphosa’s election, with raids and arrest warrants for the R220-million Estina dairy farm fraud. But they were slow. It is evidence they’ve had for more than two years.
Dumbed down
In another case, prime suspect Ajay Gupta is gone. The Hawks blame the NPA; the NPA blames the Hawks.
I also get the impression the Hawks have been dumbed down. After the pathetic and nonsensical raid on my premises last week, Colonel Joe Makua requested a statement from my publisher to clarify whether I am the publisher of The President’s Keepers and that the book has indeed been printed and sold!
There is a host of other cases the Hawks have not even touched. In June 2017, Popo Molefe, chairman of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, asked the high court to compel the Hawks to investigate pervasive corruption involving R14-billion at Prasa.
Molefe had been urging the Hawks for 18 months to investigate fraud, but, according to him, they did nothing. The parastatal had also seconded private forensic investigators to the Hawks — who report to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation but whose bill is paid by Prasa — because of a lack of capacity in the police. Molefe said the Hawks, despite their initial enthusiasm, had failed to make any progress. Where are those cases?
The current acting Hawks head, Yolisa Matakata, is apparently clean and a competent administrator, but that position requires a cop with a fire in their belly.
There have been talks with both Sibiya and Booysen about a return; they are now respectively head of the City of Johannesburg’s forensic department and head of investigations at Fidelity.
Looted secret fund
Cele knows that crime intelligence needs a complete makeover. The unit was ruined by its former head and Zuma acolyte, Richard Mdluli. He was on suspension for seven years (with full pay including a bonus) for allegedly looting the unit’s secret fund. Mdluli, who promoted some cronies from constable to colonel in a day, was never charged and has just stepped down. Since his suspension there have been six or seven acting commanders. Most left under a cloud.
Cele has already said there has to be a clean-out at crime intelligence. He is right. And good luck to him; it is an unenviable task.
South Africa’s spy boss initiated and headed a spy programme called the PAN Project in the late 2000s that wasted a billion rand of taxpayers’ money. The evidence against Fraser is undeniable.
An internal state security investigation and a subsequent probe by the inspector-general of intelligence condemned Fraser’s leadership of this fraudulent project. The internal investigation goes as far as recommending charges of treason against him.
Appointment irrational
The appointment of Fraser was probably irrational and irregular. Upon completing an investigation into PAN and Fraser, the inspector-general of intelligence handed her reports to then state security minister David Mahlobo, who nonetheless appointed Fraser.
Newly appointed State Security Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba has her work cut out. I know little about her, but she is going to need muscle against Fraser, who has appointed his former PAN cronies to top positions in the SSA.
The high court has already ruled that the appointment of Abrahams was invalid and that he should vacate his office. The case is on appeal and his removal is imminent.
The Constitutional Court heard Abrahams’s appeal at the end of last month and if the learned judges confirm the high court ruling, Abrahams is toast.
As with the other agencies, it is imperative that those who were hounded out — like top prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach — return to the organisation.
Breytenbach, now a DA MP, has been approached to return, probably as Abrahams’s replacement. According to sources, she is seriously considering the offer. She believes that most of the deputy national directors and special directors, except for a few, must go because they either did nothing during Abrahams’s disastrous reign at the NPA or supported him. Even when he inexplicably decided to charge Gordhan and Pillay, they were silent.
She believes there is ample talent in the NPA to take the organisation forward and bring the state capturers to book.
Trumped-up charges
A final warning. Listeria bacteria are a hardy breed and unless cast from the body of law enforcement agencies, they will continue to attack its ability to fight crime, ensure security and bring justice.
Trumped-up charges were brought against Breytenbach to force her out of the NPA and financially cripple her. She was found not guilty of the final set of charges only last week.
Booysen is still facing charges of racketeering, and although the case has been postponed almost 20 times, this might prevent him from going back to the Hawks.
I expect more “manufactured charges” to be brought against the “old guard” who might make their way back into the agencies. The Hawks and the NPA have been investigating cases against Pillay and Van Loggerenberg for three years.
Don’t be surprised if they soon find themselves in the dock.
A dying listeria bacterium remains a deadly beast.
Ramaphosa has learnt a hard lesson with Malusi Gigaba by affording him a second chance
It is imperative that those who were hounded out . . . return to the organisation