South Africa’s intelligence agencies are investigating who leaked information in connection with the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble, the government’s spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday.
Briefing the media after a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday in Pretoria, Maseko said he found the leaks ”totally unacceptable”.
”Intelligence services are investigating all the leaks that have been reported in the media over the past few days but unfortunately we cannot give any other detail on that matter,” Maseko said.
Indicating that members of the South African Police Service and the National Prosecuting Authority (Scorpions) might be responsible for the leaks, he said those responsible, if found, would be prosecuted.
”It [the leaks] serves to sow confusion and strengthen the misconception that the agencies are actively working against each other,” he said.
Tension between the Scorpions and the police led to the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry earlier this year into the mandate of the Scorpions.
The commission proposed that the Scorpions remain under the Department of Justice, but report to Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula on matters relating to investigations.
Speculation on the issue resurfaced after the arrest last week of Johannesburg businessman Glen Agliotti in connection with the murder of Kebble.
”South Africans and the media must be alerted to the fact that such tensions will always be there as long as there are two investigating agencies which have the mandate to investigate acts of criminality,” Maseko said.
”What is important is to realise that the nature and extent of crime in this country justifies the need for extraordinary measures, including the existence of two investigating agencies.”
On Tuesday, media reports said ”rogue elements” within law enforcement were apparently spreading disinformation about the murder probe. ”It’s a total nightmare,” National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi told the media.
”Certain people who consider themselves to be suspects are planting things in the media to force us to give a yes or no answer about certain issues … which they can hold the NPA to further down the line.”
Meanwhile, it was the police themselves who handed Kebble’s blood-spattered car to his security company shortly after his murder, the Star reported on Thursday.
The paper quoted private investigator Andre Burger as saying the Mercedes-Benz S600 was handed to him by investigating officer Captain Johan Diedericks.
Burger took Kebble’s car out of police custody and told the paper that reports that the car was cleaned — thus destroying forensic evidence — were ”vastly untrue”.
Burger is a former employee of Central National Security Guards, a company run by Kebble’s ex-security chief, Clint Nassif.
”I was on the scene [of the murder] at about 11.30pm,” Burger told the newspaper. ”[Investigating officer] Captain Johan Diedericks later asked me to take the car out of SAP13 [where all police evidence is kept] because he was worried that it would be stripped and damaged.”
Burger denied that the vehicle was washed and given a full valet. ”The car was covered in plastic sheets that had ‘Don’t touch, don’t clean’ written all over them,” he said.
Kebble died in a hail of bullets behind the steering wheel of his car in Melrose, Johannesburg, in September last year.
It has been claimed that the police lost forensic evidence when the vehicle was removed from the murder scene and cleaned hours after the killing.
National police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer declined to comment on Burger’s version of events. ”We are not speaking about any details concerning the investigation,” she said. – Sapa