SAPS distances itself from Zuma report
2011-04-13 19:41
Johannesburg - The SA Police Service on Wednesday distanced itself from a top secret intelligence report that allegedly revealed plots by a string of senior ANC members to oust President Jacob Zuma as the party's president at its elective conference next year.
"The senior management of the SAPS would like to assure South Africans that the mandate of the SAPS to fight crime will never be perverted to serve any self-serving personal agenda or political interest under their watch," said deputy national commissioner Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya.
"The work of the SAPS is underpinned by such a rigorous system of checks and balances that this document would not have passed even a single of the many verification tests that documents of its nature have to go through in order for them to be entered into the organisation's official register," he said
Hawks spokesperson McIntosh Polela said the document had no status in the police department and had never been registered with any of its units for any purpose.
"The SAPS would like to record the fact that it neither commissioned nor compiled the document titled 'Ground Coverage Intelligence Report --Alleged Corruption and Related Activities KwaZulu-Natal'.
"The SAPS would therefore like to urge the media to desist from associating it with this document or any purpose for which it may have been compiled and/or distributed."
The 22-page report allegedly emanated from an investigation into national police commissioner General Bheki Cele.
Switched allegiances
The Sunday Independent reported that Cele switched allegiance from Zuma, who was his long-time ally, to Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale.
The publication reported that others named in the report included ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa, ANC national executive committee members Fikile Mbalula, Jeff Radebe, Tony Yengeni, Cassel Mathale and David Mabuza.
This week, similar claims emerged in the Boksburg Magistrate's Court, where Crime Intelligence boss Richard Mdluli and three others were appearing in connection with a murder that took place 12 years ago.
In a letter to Zuma, Mdluli said former president Thabo Mbeki's camp was trying to take over police intelligence ahead of the 2012 ANC conference.
"These were the very same members that were involved in negative campaigning at the ANC conference in Polokwane.
"They were in Mbeki's camp and trying to take control of the intelligence environment within the police by devious tactics," Mdluli wrote in the letter, penned last year.
"The question now arises what and how do they want to use the intelligence environment to affect the 2012 build-up to the ANC?" he asked.
The letter was sent to Zuma and several ministers in November.
In it, Mdluli asked the president to intervene in the investigation against him.
He implied that the charges against him, among them murder and defeating the ends of justice, had been trumped up by intelligence members conspiring to discredit him and derail his promotion.
He and his co-accused Lieutenant Colonel Mtunzi-Omhle Mthembeni Mtunzi, 52, court orderly Samuel Dlomo, 49, and Colonel Nkosana Sebastian Ximba, 38, stand accused of killing Oupa Ramogibe in 1999.
A decision on bail is expected on April 20.
- SAPA
