Police to study lease report

2011-02-22 18:58

Johannesburg - The SA Police Service will not comment immediately on the public protector's report which found national police commissioner Bheki Cele guilty of improper conduct and maladministration over a lease deal.

"The SAPS has not received the report. Once we do so, we will carefully study the voluminous document before we are in a position to pronounce on the contents," said the SAPS in a statement.

"The SAPS will not, therefore, comment on the matter at this stage."

The police "noted with some concern" that some media houses had published "misleading and inaccurate interpretations of the Public Protector's report".

"We request the media to study the document in its entirety and report accurately."

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela briefed the media on her probe into the R500m lease for the Sanlam Middestad Building in Pretoria, for use as a police headquarters.

Briefing media in Pretoria she initially only referred to "the accounting officer" of the SAPS as being guilty of improper conduct. Asked who this was, Madonsela said Cele, as head of the police, was the accounting officer.

She found that the accounting officer of the department of public works was also guilty of improper conduct and maladministration.

Madonsela found the lease between the department of public works and property tycoon Roux Shabangu's Roux Property Fund to be invalid and in her report she had requested that the National Treasury should review the lease to see what steps could be taken to terminate the lease.

There was no evidence that Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had been involved in the deal.

A violation of public administration laws did not necessarily amount to a crime, she said.

Madonsela still had to finalise her report on a building that police wanted to lease in Durban. She expected this report to be finalised in the next month.

- SAPA