Fannie Masemola, the national police commissioner.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) has been dragged into the alleged protection of Mpumalanga’s top cop, Semakaleng Manamela, who is accused of heading a money-laundering racket and abusing state resources for her personal gain.
Lieutenant General Thulani Ntobela, the former Mpumalanga police commissioner who compiled a report that unearthed alleged corruption by Manamela since her tenure began in July 2021, has accused Ipid of participating in a cover-up by not investigating a criminal case he opened. The report into corruption and abuse of power against Manamela is dated May 2022.
A Mbombela magistrate’s court judgment released last month, stemming from an affidavit Manamela had filed, revealed that national police commissioner Fannie Masemola decided to act on the report’s findings in October last year because he feared Ntobela would leak the report to the media.
Responding to the Mail & Guardian on Manamela’s claims under oath that Masemola had told Manamela he would act against her because Ntobela “will take the report to the media if the national commissioner does nothing about the report”, Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said the provincial commissioner “stands by her sworn affidavit”.
“However, we do not have any intention to discuss the matters that are before the court,” Mohlala said, adding that Manamela was “not involved in any money laundering”.
The views in Manamela’s affidavit appear to back an M&G report in September last year that Masemola had ignored the findings against Manamela because the national commissioner was embroiled in an alleged corruption cover-up in the Mpumalanga police service.
Ntobela further claimed that a paper trail exists of top Mpumalanga police officers running a money laundering scheme which involves the sourcing of donations from the province’s business people, whereafter the money is channelled to “private people” nominated by Manamela.
In December, Ntobela opened a case of contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act with Ipid, claiming that Manamela had used state resources in the same month to drive from Nelspruit to Johannesburg and serve an interim protection order on him for “harassing” her with his inquiry into her activities.
Last month, Mbombela magistrate Annemarie van der Merwe dismissed Manamela’s harassment claims against Ntobela, saying she had failed to show “that she is entitled to a protection order” and ordered that she pay for the costs of the unsuccessful application.
Manamela had alleged that Ntobela leaked his May 2022 report to the M&G, prior to the publication’s first report in September on the graft allegations against the provincial head of police.
The forensic investigation found that Manamela had showered herself with gifts worth more than R2.1 million at welcoming parties after her appointment in July 2021.
Ntobela said Manamela used state resources to serve the interim protection order for a “private matter between herself and myself” and the magistrate had directed that the interim order be served by officers from the Midrand police station.
“I am of the view that even Ipid is captured here because in February 2023, three months after I had opened this contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act case, nobody had contacted me about this case. I then inquired from the Ipid provincial commander Mr Glen Angus, asking him who was investigating my case. His response [in text message] was: ‘The case is with me, I have been busy, l will call you.’”
Ntobela showed the M&G email correspondence he had sent to Ipid head Jennifer Ntlatseng complaining about the stalling of his case against Manamela. Ntlatseng, from the email correspondence seen, forwarded the message to Angus without dealing with the contents of Ntobela’s complaints.
“To date, I have not received any feedback from them. I don’t know whether it is a cover-up of corruption or just incompetence. In all inquiries that I have been making, I have made sure that I identify myself so that they understand that the person they are dealing with has walked the same path as them — but all in vain,” Ntobela said.
Ipid spokesperson Robbie Raburabu said the directorate was investigating the Manamela case and denied Ntobela’s claims that his complaints were being ignored by the directorate’s investigators.
“Once investigators are busy with an investigation you cannot interfere with them unless you provide further information or evidence,” Raburabu said.
“Both Mr Angus and the executive director Ms Ntlatseng cannot interfere with an ongoing investigation. [Ntobela’s] insinuations are unsubstantiated.”
In dismissing Manamela’s harassment case against Ntobela, the Mbombela magistrate said she had “no direct evidence” that he had leaked his May 2022 report to the M&G.
Magistrate Van Der Merwe said in the absence of direct evidence that Ntobela personally disclosed the report to the media she had to rely on circumstantial evidence, including that Ntobela had a clause in his report that only Masemola was allowed to view his findings.
The magistrate said the mere existence of a disclosure clause in the report was not enough to find that Manamela was harassed by Ntobela.
Last week, the M&G reported that a voice recording existed of a telephone conversation Middelburg police station commander Brigadier Thandi Jiyane had with an officer in Manamela’s office, where Jiyane is heard discussing how she sourced R230 000 from a Mpumalanga businessman, and the money was “laundered” to Manamela’s “private people”.
Ntobela said the national commissioner was aware of the recording, but had not acted against Manamela or the alleged money laundering by senior Mpumalanga officers.
“I am told that this voice clip was not investigated at all, yet there is a paper trail [of] these transactions,” Ntobela said.
Questions sent to the national commissioner’s office last week have remained unanswered.
Ntobela’s report further detailed how Manamela appointed then Colonel John Madonsela as Mpumalanga’s promotional posts chairperson so Manamela’s brother, Charles Sono, could be promoted, despite the fact that he has faced “serious cases of corruption” since April 2020.
Sono’s promotion was effected in February, when he was made the visible policing commander at Daggakraal police station, with the rank of warrant officer.