Police Resignations: Cele should resign if SIU finds he misled Parliament

If it is found during the Special Investigating Unit's (SIU) probe that National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele misled the Police Portfolio Committee on Friday - an allegation that is reported on in this morning's Sunday Times - then the Democratic Alliance (DA) will have no option but to call for his resignation (see report).

Commissioner Cele is embroiled in a major scandal relating to two rental deals, for buildings in Pretoria and Durban, worth over R700-million, and the Commissioner on Friday attempted to shift the blame to the three generals who resigned - Stefanus Terblanche, Matthews Siwundla and Hamilton Hlela. The DA believes that if the three Generals were guilty of criminality, they should have been suspended and charged, not paid out Golden Handshakes out of the public purse. However, if the Commissioner has misled Parliament, then it is he who needs to account for what has transpired.

On Friday, I specifically asked Commissioner Cele to explain what was paid out to the three SAPS members who resigned and why they were told to leave the SAPS. The commissioner then appeared to claim that the resignations followed after he approached the SIU and asked them to investigate SAPS property deals, and that all three SAPS members resigned of their own volition. He appeared to imply that there may be criminal charges to follow.

However, there are at least two different versions of the story now on the table:

1.) The Ministry of Public Works claims it, not Commissioner Cele, asked the SIU to investigate dodgy property deals within the SAPS.

2.)  At least two of the generals claim they were effectively ‘fired' - forced out because they refused point blank to sign off on the Roux Shabangu deals, as they were for unnecessary and extremely expensive offices.

If the SIU finds that the Commissioner misled Parliament, and verifies either the account of the Public Works ministry or generals, then the Commissioner will, we believe, have no option but to step down.

In addition, serious questions remain about the original dealings:

The DA understands that the contract for 477 Smith Street in Durban, which has now been cancelled by Public Works, was to be rented to the SAPS by Roux Shabangu for R6-million per month, an amount that could have bought the R42-million building outright within just over half a year. The building is 42 000 sq meters as opposed to the current building's 12 000 - and when queried about where the personnel were to be sourced to fill such a building, it was allegedly stated that the staff would be taken from the surrounding police stations, although the DA understands that no needs analyses documentation was allegedly forthcoming, despite frequent requests.

The proposed removal of, for example, the family violence, child protection, sexual offences and crime intelligence units from Inanda, Phoenix, Durban Central, Brighton Beach, Umlazi, Chatsworth and Pinetown would, we believe, have had a damaging impact on the relevant communities.

In addition, the National Commissioner did not answer a question I put to him about the Kurator building in Pretoria, leased by Public Works for the SAPS top structure to move in while renovations of their offices were conducted at Wachthuis.  The Kurator contract has run for around eight months thus far, at R2-million per month, and stands empty because the entire process was stalled while Commissioner Cele allegedly entered into another agreement with Roux Shabangu. That contract was for yet another building in Pretoria -- a 10 year lease costing R520-million. 

Commissioner Cele also slammed the fact that the Wachthuis contract had been signed for 10 years by Public Works, although the explanation given to me was that for the five years it took to build the new Police Headquarters the SAPS would occupy the building, and after that the offices would be utilised by other government entities.

The DA will submit parliamentary questions to the minister of police on all of these issues tomorrow.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of police, September 5 2010

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