General Bheki Cele and the R500m police deal

On 1 August MZILIKAZI wa AFRIKA and STEPHAN HOFSTATTER reported in the Sunday Times that police top Brass were "baffled" at the suddenness of Bheki Cele signing a 10 year lease, above the going market rates and without calling for a tender, to house the new HQ.  The lease agreement for the Middestad property, entered into between Shabangu's company, Roux Property Fund, and the SAPS, signed by General Cele and public works official MB Tlolane was executed on June 1.

Subsequently the media reported that the police generals who questioned the deal were given rapid fire golden handshakes to get them out of the way and stop them from derailing the transfer to new premises.

Terblanche and Hlela confirmed that General Cele "personally led the drive to relocate the SAPS national and provincial headquarters in Pretoria and Durban at a total cost to taxpayers of R760 million".

Correspondence seen by the Sunday Times shows that the SAPS and public works officials questioned the need for moving premises. Therefore, clearly, a decision at a much higher level had to prevail to sweep away the concerns of the lesser officials. General Cele's submission that his involvement was limited to identifying the police's accommodation needs certainly does not square up with what is on record.

It is common cause that the deal never went out to tender and thereby it violated Treasury regulations that all contracts over R500 000 had to go through a competitive bid process. The Department of Public Works has been unable to explain why it had flouted Treasury rules.

The fact that that both written correspondence and the oral statements of those who until recently occupied high positions within the police sharply call into question the truthfulness of Bheki Cele's declarations to the media and to parliament in particular, and therefore warrants the immediate appointment of a Judicial Commission of Enquiry to establish the truth.

As in the case of his predecessor, General Bheki Cele has brought his high office into disrepute and it behoves government to set up a Judicial Commission of Enquiry to help the country ascertain whether or not the present incumbent has wilfully involved himself in a shady and dodgy deal and forced officers with integrity who opposed the deal to leave the service under both compulsion and monetary inducement.

From the information that is already available in the public domain it is clear to us in COPE that nothing less than a Judicial Commission of Enquiry will settle this matter and pacify the public disquiet regarding it. The stage-managed arrest of wa-Afrika, who exposed this story, using an excessive show of force as well as the many other suspicious moves made since then by the police indicate to an angry South Africa that the police want to use every means possible to kill off any further exposure regarding this deal.

The fact that the Minister of Public Works has requested the SIU's to investigate the deal does not diminish the importance of instituting a Judicial Commission of Enquiry as any information they glean can serve before the Commission.

COPE challenges President Zuma to honour his undertaking to root out corruption and therefore to allow a Judicial Commission of Enquiry to evaluate all of the material evidence in this case and make a finding on the truthfulness of Bheki Cele's statement and the appropriateness of his holding the highest office of trust in the land.

COPE demands a Judicial Commission of Enquiry. Nothing less will abate our unease or that of the public in general.

Statement issued by COPE, September 7 2010

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