City to launch probe into its forensics unit
THE City of Joburg council speaker, Margaret Arnolds, has announced that former evidence leader of the state capture commission, advocate Pule Seleka, will lead an investigation into the city’s group forensics and investigating services (GFIS) department.
The announcement follows reports of operational challenges as well as allegations of unlawful conduct by the metro’s group forensics and investigation services.
Last year, GFIS came under fire after several councillors reported the procurement of spyware employed to snoop on them. In August, a group of concerned councillors descended on the GFIS offices in Braamfontein to uncover if they were being monitored through the use of grabbers.
According to Independent Media, in 2022, Police Minister Bheki Cele reportedly ordered the City of Joburg to lay criminal charges over the GFIS’s purchase of multimillion-rand counterintelligence equipment. In a letter dated July 14, 2022, Cele said he had received a report that former Joburg mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse had allegedly subverted evidence implicating ex-Gauteng Hawks boss Shadrack Sibiya in the unlawful seizure of counter-intelligence functions of the State Security Agency.
Sibiya is said to have played a significant role in the establishment of GFIS, which was created by then Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba in 2017.
Speaking at yesterday’s media briefing announcing the appointment of the investigating panel led by Seleka, Arnolds said part of the investigation’s terms of reference would seek to uncover operational challenges as well as to establish if the unit had been established in accordance with the laws.
“The decision to appoint a senior counsel follows a disclosure of the operations director of GFIS and a subsequent report that was tabled by the former executive mayor regarding rogue, clandestine and unlawful investigations that were conducted against senior managers and councillors,” Arnolds said.
Seleka said it was too early to tell what would happen should the investigation find that the unit was established unlawfully. “The terms of reference were approved by the speaker in July 2023.
These areas of investigation relate, inter alia, to the establishment of GFIS back in April 2017, its operations and the appointment of its group head as well as the acquisition of certain forensic equipment by GFIS.
“The investigation process will be governed by rules of procedure. The nature of the investigation will be inquisitorial as opposed to adversarial,” Seleka said.
In March 2023, senior department officials were suspended pending an investigation into allegations levelled against them. A report found there were irregularities in some of the investigations conducted by GFIS.
Arnolds said the issue of budget had yet to be finalised.
“Senior counsel and his team are yet to begin their work. They only have the terms of reference. They will then look into what they are going to do and will quote us based on this. We will then go to council and tell council that this is what it’s going to cost us,” she said.