Silent: Limpopo police commissioner Thembi Hadebe was told about fraudster Howard Mashaba’s harassment of a tenant. Photo: X/SAPS
Limpopo police commissioner Thembi Hadebe is the latest senior figure implicated in convicted fraudster Howard Mashaba’s demolishing state property to build a new hotel in Giyani, Limpopo.
These latest revelations are detailed in Rosinah Mashele’s court case of harassment against Mashaba.
In her affidavit filed in the Giyani magistrate’s court, Mashele — an employee of the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) — stated that on 1 July, she informed Hadebe that Mashaba wanted to kick her out of the home she rented from the public works and infrastructure department.
In July, the Sassa official had received a protection order against Mashaba, who was arrested in August for breaking the court interdict.
The property, situated in the Giyani suburb of Kremetart, is owned by the public works department, according to a deeds search the Mail & Guardian performed, despite Mashaba stating in his responding papers to the harassment case that he bought the house from the state.
Before allegedly kicking her out of the house to develop his new hotel, Mashaba is accused of employing people to switch off Mashele’s electricity and dump building sand and bricks in front of the property
Mashaba — who has four previous convictions dating back to 2008, as well as several graft cases in Limpopo and Gauteng — said in a video seen by the M&G that he expected to launch his Mafemani Hotel on 19 October. He also owns the Xilumani Hotel in Giyani.
He is also the subject of a Special Investigating Unit inquiry into more than R34.4 million in allegedly stolen National Lotteries Commission funds.
Detailing her interactions with the Limpopo police commissioner, Mashele said she gave Hadebe the phone numbers of Mashaba and his workers — as well as the Giyani police station’s commander, identified only as General Mashaba — where a “conference call” was held with all involved.
“It was on that [call] where the first respondent [Mashaba] told the provincial commissioner that the houses he purchased were five in number and that he purchased them politically from the national department of public works,” Mashele stated.
Two weeks ago, the M&G reported that Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson allegedly failed to act. Macpherson, who was asked for comment before the article was printed, said after publication that he “had no knowledge whatsoever of this property”.
While confirming that the provincial police commissioner was aware of the allegations against her and Mashaba, Limpopo police spokesperson Malesela Ledwaba said Hadebe could not comment because the “matters you are inquiring about [are] before the court”.
“It is worth mentioning that the cases are investigated at the provincial level by a well-experienced team appointed by the provincial commissioner due to the complexity of the allegations,” Ledwaba added. “We can only be available for comment after the finalisation of these cases.”
In an affidavit countering allegations against him, Mashaba said Mashele was not “a legal tenant” of the property, saying he “disputed the validity of such a lease agreement”.
“I deny that the property in question belongs to the department of public works. I am in the process of obtaining a title deed for the said house and other properties I bought from the department of public works,” he said.
Mashaba is out on R5 000 bail for breaking the harassment protection order granted against him by the Giyani court, after he was arrested in August.
Meanwhile, the M&G has established that advocate Queen Letsoalo — the control prosecutor at the Giyani magistrate’s court — refused to be “forced” to deliver a presentation on bail hearing applications at Mashaba’s Xilumani Hotel in what highly-placed sources called an attempt to humiliate her.
This was after Letsoalo handled Mashaba’s first appearance after his August arrest, where she placed on record her intentions to oppose bail.
Sources aware of the arrest said officers — who are apparently part of the alleged corrupt relationship Mashaba has with the state — brought him to Letsoalo’s office because they wanted to “sort the matter out”, instead of taking him straight to the cells at the court building, where all suspects are held.
“When she [Letsoalo] saw them coming into her office with Mashaba, she walked out, leaving them there. Letsoalo had already been informed that Mashaba was asked to hand himself over to police, instead of being arrested,” said an insider who asked to remain anonymous.
The source added that after leaving her office, Letsoala went to another room, called the officers to it, and told them that “all accused should be in the holding cells”.
Another source, with intimate knowledge of what transpired during the bail application, said the court prosecutor — whose name is known to the M&G — refused to place on record whether she would oppose bail or not.
“This led to Letsoalo, as the control prosecutor, going to court to postpone the matter for bail application the following day,” said the source, who also asked to remain anonymous.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), control prosecutors ordinarily do not handle bail applications, because they are responsible for assessing case dockets and deciding whether prosecutions are warranted.
“So, [Letsoalo] went to court, placed on record that the state would be opposing bail, and was granted the postponement to the following day for the actual hearing.”
To allegedly humiliate the control prosecutor, the justice department recommended that Letsoalo deliver the presentation on bail at Mashaba’s hotel shortly after he received bail as part of a request by the provincial department of transport and community safety.
A letter seen by the M&G and written by advocate Mackenzie Tsimane — the justice department’s head of legal administration and advocacy — asked advocate Octavia Ngwenya, the chief prosecutor in the NPA’s Polokwane cluster, to attend one of five of the provincial transport department’s “capacity building workshops”.
Tsekiso Machike, the spokesperson for the justice and constitutional development ministry, confirmed Ngwenya received the invitation but did not attend because of a “conflict of interest”. He added that Ngwenya declined the invitation because a possible conflict related to Mashaba’s many charges could arise.
However, Letsoalo was assigned by the department present at Mashaba’s hotel on 17 September, despite the obvious conflict of interest of her prosecuting one of his matters.
An NPA spokesperson referred all questions to the justice department.
But Machike said the department had “no authority over public prosecutors”, and was not responsible if any attended the transport department’s event.
On Mashaba Machike said: “We were not aware that someone accused of [a] crime would be attending a government event. Be that as it may, there’s no law prohibiting him from attending.
“The event was not about [Mashaba’s] matter but to inform the public generally on their rights and obligations.”