Hawks boss to be charged?
THE country’s top detective responsible for rooting out serious crime will know next week if he will be charged with defeating the ends of justice.
The Mercury can reveal today that the head of the National Prosecuting Authority is sitting with a completed docket against Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza, head of the Hawks, who is accused of ignoring a complaint against a former captain at the Polokwane police station.
The officer, Thomas Rallele, who was allegedly romantically linked to his daughter, was caught red-handed with a cellphone taken during an armed robbery and defrauding the police by falsifying vehicle logs.
The complaint was submitted by Lieutenant Boitumelo Ramahlaha, who was stationed at the Polokwane police station and investigated Rallele, and ultimately convicted him after detailed reports proved Rallele’s guilt.
Ramahlaha reported the misconduct to Ntlemeza, who was the deputy provincial commissioner for Limpopo at the time. The complaint has seemingly been ignored for the past five years.
The Mercury’s sister newspaper The Star understands that the completed docket is finally in the hands of the NPA, which will decide by next week if Ntlemeza should be charged with defeating the ends of justice.
According to the Mail & Guardian, a fraud case was lodged against Rallele at the Polokwane police station in April 2015, but by August the case was closed. Ramahlaha requested the reasons from the NPA and was later told that the case had never been submitted to the prosecuting authority. Ramahlaha then opened a case of defeating the ends of justice against Ntlemeza for failing to pursue the case.
Ramahlaha alleged at the time that the reason Ntlemeza was protecting Rallele was because the police officer was romantically linked to Ntlemeza’s daughter.
When The Star asked Ramahlaha for comment, he redirected queries to his lawyer. “I am not afraid to tell the world the truth. I am, however, as per policy directives, not allowed to speak to the media,” he said.
His lawyer, Matome Moloto, said Ramahlaha had been asked by the national director of public prosecutions to submit a supplementary affidavit to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate earlier this month.
“Our client believes strongly that there is a case to answer to (by Ntlemeza),” Moloto said. Investigative directorate spokesman Robbie Raburabu said the case had been before the directorate for some time, but the director of public prosecutions had some queries about it.
Raburabu said these questions had now been answered and the docket had been sent to the NPA for a decision. NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku confirmed the director of public prosecutions of Limpopo had received the docket and was set to make a decision on whether to pursue charges by next week.
Police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said Rallele was fired from the police after the intervention of Ntlemeza, “so if there is any other investigation regarding a person who is out of the police system it’s unthinkable”.
He added: “Lieutenant-General Ntlemeza has always been forthright that this smear campaign will not deter him from doing his job. It is not surprising that there are individuals and so-called civil society organisations that are after his scalp, and will stop at nothing to make sure that they protect their interests.”
Malaudzi said they welcomed any investigation on any matter since they realised that this was going to be an ongoing thing.
“We even encouraged those individuals to go further and report any concerns to the DPC (Directorate of Priority Crimes) judge to investigate.”