‘Let me do my job’
HAWKS head Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza says he is unfazed by two organisations who are “trying to frustrate” him by launching a court battle to remove him from his position while he is focused on fighting crime.
Ntlemeza, who was in KwaZuluNatal yesterday to visit the family of slain traditional leader iNkosi Linda Mathonsi, was responding to the application made by the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to have him removed from the position.
The application is being heard before the court, and this week the two organisations told the court that Police Minister Nathi Nhleko had acted unlawfully, irregularly and irrationally by appointing Ntlemeza to lead the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks.
Legal representatives for the two organisations, advocate David Unterhalter SC, based the argument against Ntlemeza on two previous judgments which had found him to have acted with bias, and to be dishonest and lacking integrity and honour.
One of those judgments was made by Durban High Court judge Anton van Zyl, who suggested that Ntlemeza had acted in bad faith and in a high-handed manner when he suspended KZN Hawks head Major-General Johan Booysen.
Yesterday Ntlemeza poured cold water on the court application to oust him.
“Actually, I was not even aware that they are in court today because my mind is not there,” he said.
Ntlemeza said his mind was on the people of South Africa, “to whom I am a servant”.
When asked if he was not worried that he might lose his job if the application succeeded, he said: “The position was never given to me by myself, and I was never born with the position. So I am doing my work, that is all.”
He said although he respected the country’s courts, he was not moved by this particular case.
“Why should I have my attention diverted?” he asked.
He then asked for a message to be passed to the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law: that they were “disturbing the general”.
“The general wants to help the people of this country and he is not paying attention to them (the organisations),” he said.
The other case that the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law are relying on was made by Judge Elias Matojane where he overturned the suspension of then Gauteng head of the Hawks, Major-General Shadrack Sibiya, in February last year.
He had found that Ntlemeza was “biased and dishonest” and that he “lacked integrity and honour”.
The judgment by Judge Matojane was made before Ntlemeza was appointed to his position in September last year.
Unterhalter told the Pretoria court that the cabinet and Nhleko had ignored the judgments.
The Helen Suzman Foundation’s legal researcher, Kimera Chetty, insisted that Ntlemeza’s appointment was irrational.
She said this was not an attempt to frustrate him.
“The case was not based on any personal attack against General Ntlemeza. It is based squarely in the law.
“This has got nothing to do with a character of an individual, and we can’t respond to any accusation of personal attack.
“Ours is the legal argument,” said Chetty.
Freedom Under Law’s executive officer, Nicole Fritz, said “unfortunately” Ntlemeza could not ignore the court application.
“His role requires him to be a person of integrity.
“The finding of the judge in the Sibiya case against him made the Minister of Police’s decision to appoint him unlawful,” said Fritz.
KWAZULU-Natal is no worse than other provinces when it comes to political killings, as others were riddled with the murders of leaders, said Hawks head Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza yesterday.
Ntlemeza was visiting the family of iNkosi Linda Sonny Mathonsi, who was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Sundumbili near Mandeni on Monday.
While at the Mathonsi homestead he announced he had assigned a Hawks-led special task team to take over the investigation into Mathonsi’s murder. The team was introduced by Police Minister Nathi Nhleko last year to investigate political killings in the province.
“No, KZN is not different from other provinces. For example, in the Eastern Cape these things happen. It’s is a pity you are based in KZN. If I can tell you more about what is happening in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Western Cape and Gauteng, you can say KZN is like any other province,” said Ntlemeza.
Ntlemeza cited the example of Nelson Mandela Bay where the Hawks made an arrest in connection with the murder of Nceba Dywili, 35. Dywili was the ANC candidate for the local government elections when he was gunned down in Walmer Township in July.
“The other murder from the Eastern Cape left unsolved is of ANC candidate Zolile Malangeni and wife Ntombovuyo,” he said.
KZN has seen more than 10 politically related killings in the lead-up to and aftermath of the local government elections. The latest was the killing of Umuziwabantu Municipality Ward 3 councillor Alwin “Ace” Houston late last week, following the murder of another ANC councillor, Thembinkosi ‘Commando’ Zoleka, in Ray Nkonyeni Municipality (Port Shepstone) early last month.
Ntlemeza said the task team was working hard to solve all political killings in KZN, and “they are still doing very well”.
“As I am talking to you now, people are in court in Newcastle, and also in Pietermaritzburg people are appearing in court.
“Yes, there are some cases that are not yet solved, but the investigation is moving well,” he said.
Motive
He said the police had yet to establish the motive behind Mathonsi’s murder. He was shot and killed in Mandeni on Monday night while driving with his daughter, who was wounded but survived.
“I can tell you very soon, because I activated the same task team today and I gave them more resources. We are going to arrest the suspect, or suspects.
“The motive will be known,” he said.
IFP national chairman Blessed Gwala also appealed to Community Safety and Liaison MEC Mxolisi Kaunda and the Hawks to make speedy arrests of Mathonsi’s assailants.
“They must send a clear and strong message that no killing of Amakhosi will be tolerated.
“To really do justice about what is going on here, much more should be investigated than simply this murder. This is an assassination,” said Gwala.
NFP provincial chairman Vikizitha Mlotshwa said his party was concerned that brutal killings in KZN were increasing “rapidly, instead of declining”.
“Our province is now becoming a no-go area where our own people are now living in fear because of such incidents,” said Mlotshwa.