Top cop Mkhwanazi calls for merciless clean-up of crime intelligence

ACTING police chief Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi wants a massive clean-up of police crime intelligence, including suspending its former head, Lieutenant General Richard Mdluli.

Mkhwanazi confirmed to the Sunday Tribune that no one linked to corruption would be spared. “I am a cop. I want the police environment to have clean cops. If we want to fight crime we must rid the SAPS of criminals and stay with clean cops,” he said.

A source close to Mkhwanazi said he would suspend Mdluli and secret services account chief financial officer Major-general Solly Lazarus this week.

Mkhwanazi is said to have received information of widespread looting of the account that implicated many people in the division – including high- ranking officials. There was information that travel claims had been abused – an allegation which Hawks investigators had also heard from a key witness and reported to the head of the anti-corruption task team in March.

Sources claimed Mkhwanazi also planned to institute disciplinary action against senior managers who had allegedly given state cars to clerks and cashiers without authorisation.

Others were also believed to be using state funds to pay for fuel.

Last Sunday Mkhwanazi signed two notices of suspension which were delivered to Mdluli and Lazarus. Both men now have to provide reasons why they should not be suspended.

Lazarus had administered the account and Hawks investigators had stumbled across information about its misuse once they began probing a decade-old love triangle mur- der allegation against Mdluli.

A Hawks investigation, which has allegedly been frustrated at every turn, uncovered evidence that Mdluli allegedly used the secret account to buy two luxury vehicles, found at his wife’s home.

A report by Hawks investigator Colonel Kobus Roelofse was part of papers submitted to court last week by lobby group Freedom Under Law, in a bid to have Mdluli removed and criminally charged.

It appears the evidence unearthed will lead to more suspensions and charges.

Mkhwanazi has apparently requested a full report on how the slush fund was used.

Mdluli was suspended and arrested early last year, but murder and fraud charges were provisionally withdrawn and he was reinstated.

Lazarus was suspended in December over alleged financial and tender irregularities worth millions, but was reinstated in March.

In court papers, Freedom Under Law board member Mamphela Ramphele said: “The reinstatement of General Mdluli into office, without prosecution of criminal and disciplinary charges against him, has caused serious controversy, material lack of trust within and outside the ranks of SAPS, as well as instability in SAPS, more particularly at its leadership level.”

Roelofse has warned that crime intelligence operatives who are suspected of criminal activity and left unchecked could be a threat to state security.