Marianne Merten and Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
Senior police officers are involved in gun- running between Gauteng and the Western Cape as well as vehicle theft syndicates which supply illegal chop shops, according to former People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) Gauteng co-ordinator Ayob Mungalee.
The self-confessed National Intelligence Agency (NIA) informer is awaiting trial in Krugersdorp prison after he and four other vigilantes were arrested in February allegedly in possession of two detonators, illegal firearms and ammunition.
In prison, Mungalee met and teamed up with a former policeman from the Soweto flying squad, George Kieser, who says he is also an informant for military intelligence and the NIA. Kieser, a police officer for 13 years, has been awaiting trial on charges of car theft for 15 months.
In a signed statement from jail, Mungalee and Kieser claim “a senior police officer transported explosives and ammunition to the Cape during a time when things were most volatile”.
The statement names the officer as Western Cape Superintendent Riaan Pool, and alleges he has also been involved in car hijackings in Soweto.
“Full explanation [sic] will be given how a double agent conspired with this officer [to transport weapons]. The cache included M26 hand grenades, pipe bombs, detonators, superchargers, R-1 rounds and magazines, shotgun rounds, R-5 magazines and +/- 126 sticks of commercial explosives. Some of these are available in Gauteng presently and we will point it out.”
Representative for the anti-corruption unit Welma Nortj confirmed that Kieser’s charges date back a long time and that he had been an informant for the NIA, but added he has cried foul for a long time. Apparently he fell out with authorities after demanding more money for information.
Advocate AP de Vries, SC, director of public prosecutions for the Witwatersrand, said Pool was trained as an agent and used in an undercover operation by the national anti-corruption unit of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
“They are now testifying in court in various trials about these crimes against other policemen,”De Vries said. “All these case are at present sub judice and I can therefore not give any greater detail.”
Mungalee and Kieser claim Pool transferred the arms to the Western Cape and was relocated under the witness protection programme after he had apparently uncovered “a can of worms” related to a vehicle-theft syndicate.
Mungalee and Kieser claim that Pool and three of his colleagues have been given indemnity from prosecution despite their alleged criminal activities.
“He and two of his junior officers admitted in a court of law that they were together involved in hundreds of crimes over three years involving stolen and hijacked motor vehicles, also numerous acts of corruption.”
The two say they have in their possession a letter from Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions Jan d’Oliviera dated July 2, confirming the senior policeman has not made full disclosure.
But the commander of the anti-corruption unit, Director Stefan Grobler, said Pool’s information had led to the confiscation of 63 stolen vehicles and the legal implication of 19 people.
Nortj said Kieser has been making similar claims for some time.
The former policeman has been described as a very intelligent and dynamic person – a little like convicted murderer Eugene de Kock “who has been involved in crimes but now blames others”.
Said Nortj: “He’s been looking for reporters to tell his sad story. He’s not in jail for nothing.”
The two men allege they can prove police have been involved in cross-country gun- running and in at least one instance of a cover-up.
Says their statement: “… also proof of gangsters being supplied with police-issue arms and ammunition from Gauteng, which was recovered in the Western Cape”.
The claims by Mungalee and Kieser echo those made by the former Pagad member during his bail application in the Oudtshoorn Regional Court earlier this year. Mungalee alleged the NIA knew of several shipments of gunpowder for use in pipe bombs between Gauteng and the Western Cape.
His NIA handler, Gretha Bezuidenhoudt, denied this, saying the agency had only been informed after the fact that Mungalee brought several kilograms of gunpowder from Johannesburg to Cape Town in January.
Bezuidenhoudt also told the court that although she had discussed the controlled delivery of weapons and gunpowder with Mungalee, the transports did not happen.
At the end of July, Mungalee contacted a Mail & Guardian reporter to claim he is in detention because “he knows too much”. He said he had investigated police in southern Johannesburg over the past two years, and forwarded proof of corruption and involvement to authorities as early as last year.
In one instance, Mungalee claims he alerted Soweto police to illegal chop shops and scrapyards which relied on police officers. But he was also allegedly told the police would have to wait for the army before raiding such places.
In their statement Mungalee and Kieser claim they have a sworn affidavit from an operative working at a vehicle satellite tracking group, describing how a Soweto scrapyard owner refused to hand over a stolen car until “a certain senior police officer was called to the scene”.
This week members of the SAPS, the South African National Defence Force, the South African Revenue Service and the metropolitan council seized 20 allegedly stolen engines with serial numbers filed off at Don’s Scrapyard in Soweto.
Area communications head Superintendent Govindsamy Mariemuthoo says the police often receive information in the course of investigations, but would not disclose the source of such details.
Mungalee and Kieser say they are compelled to speak out because of their previous participation in “intelligence operations which exposed police corruption and SAPS collusion in crimes.
“We offer detailed testimony before any supreme court judge. Should our allegations not be verified, we understand that we could then be prosecuted for perjury.”