Presidency can't hide the truth behind Dramat's suspension

22 January 2015

The Presidency has neglected to mention two key points in their attempt to spin the Police Minister's suspension of Hawks boss Anwa Dramat.

If there is nothing to hide then the IPID report on Zimbabwe renditions must be released. This report is central to the suspension of Dramat and should be in the public domain.

None other than the head of IPID, Robert McBride, has confirmed that the Zimbabwe renditions report in fact clears Dramat, and goes even further to suggest there was a plan to set Dramat up.

We demand that this IPID report be tabled in parliament. The Presidency must surely agree that if there is nothing to hide then we must end the secrecy around this report. 

Secondly, if there was nothing to hide why would the Police Minister take the extraordinary step of suspending Dramat, in direct contravention of a Constitutional Court judgment delivered in November? 

The judgment clearly states that the Police Minister has no power to suspend the Head of the Hawks.

We believe with good reason that Minister Nhleko took this patently unlawful step to get rid of the Hawks boss because Dramat had asked for the file on the Nkandla corruption charges.

Emboldened by the Constitutional Court ruling, Dramat was doing his job by requesting the Nkandla file in order to investigate this abuse of public funds.

The Presidency's attack on the DA is an attempt to deflect attention away from what is really going on here. What is really "mischievous" and "irresponsible" is the abuse of our institutions that South Africans are witnessing.

The DA will continue to do our jobs as the official opposition, by exposing the systematic breaking down of our institutions, from the Hawks, to SARS, to the NPA, by President Zuma and his network. 

Statement issued by DA leader, Helen Zille, January 22 2015

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