Mungo Soggot
The heads of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Scorpions have been exchanging letters about their strained relationship after fresh claims by police that the elite unit hijacks cases from the men in blue.
There has long been rivalry between the Directorate of Special Operations (or the Scorpions) and the police, with reports of senior officers accusing the Scorpions of stealing the limelight and cherry-picking the best cases.
However, this is the first time correspondence about the tension has leaked into the public domain. In one letter earlier this month to Bulelani Ngcuka, the National Director of Public Prosecutions who heads the elite unit, police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi says: “I have made myself quite clear in the past that there is no way I can associate myself with a system where the directorate [of special operations] or any other institution combating crime can unilaterally address some of the most serious crime threats in the country.”
Selebi warns that any confusion between the two organisations could have serious consequences: “In organised crime investigations, agents and informers are deployed and without proper coordination their lives will be endangered or counter-allegations of corruption might become the order of the day.”
The spark for the recent round of correspondence appears to have been a formal complaint by Western Cape Police Commissioner Lennit Max to Selebi that a Scorpions officer took over a police docket into an attempted murder in Mitchells Plain without consulting the police.
“This type of action by the Scorpions does not contribute to healthy relations between the two departments and is demoralising to my members,” writes Max. “Thus I seek your urgent guidance before the situation gets out of hand, bearing in mind that similar past actions where dockets were taken by the Scorpions have not been resolved as yet.”
Forwarding the complaint to Ngcuka, police Deputy National Commissioner Tim Williams says, in a letter dated June 26, that such “problems” could be resolved if both sides stick to the “mechanisms of liaison discussed between yourself and the national commissioner of the South African Police Service. We plead that your good office communicate the mechanism with your provincial offices.”
Ngcuka replies that he accepts the suggestions put forward by the police about cooperation and says he has asked one of his senior employees to set up a meeting with a senior police official to discuss the matter. “I am very appreciative of your input and hope that this process will be speedily streamlined.”
Ngcuka’s representative, Sipho Ngwema, said this week a committee has been set up by both organisations to find ways of “streamlining” the relationship. “We have been receiving lots of cooperation and assistance from the SAPS,” he said.
A senior official in the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions said relations are “improving”. Selebi’s representative said he was unavailable for comment.
@MECs squat at state’s expense
Featuring tennis courts, landscaped gardens and the most expensive fittings, these homes are maintained by taxpayers
Paul Kirk
KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial ministers are squatting in government-owned housing in Ulundi, where they have been living in luxury homes since 1994 without paying rent.
For seven years the province’s MECs both African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party have occupied some of the most expensive homes in Ulundi, refusing to pay rent but still drawing their generous housing subsidies.
The homes they squat in are owned by the provincial Department of Works and are located in the most affluent areas of Ulundi. They boast tennis courts, swimming pools, landscaped gardens and the most expensive finishes and fittings, and are maintained at the taxpayers’ expense, as the MECs make no contribution to their upkeep.
The only politician not to squat at the taxpayers’ expense is frugal MEC for Finance Peter Miller.
Department of Works officials this week told Mail & Guardian that since 1994 provincial cabinet members have run up enormous rent bills of more than R500 000 in some cases and only now are some ministers beginning to pay even a token amount toward rent.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Lionel Mtshali has only recently begun to pay R2 500 a month rent for his mansion in Ulundi. Mtshali has also paid a token lump sum of R6 000 towards his rent arrears of more R400 000.
The exact details of when Mtshali began to pay rent were not known to either his media spokesperson or the provincial Department of Works, which owns his Ulundi residence.
The Ministerial Handbook allows national Cabinet ministers who have to commute between Cape Town and Pretoria a free official residence in Pretoria, but their Cape Town homes are for their own account. MECs do not usually need to commute between capitals. KwaZulu-Natal is an exception, with two capitals, Ulundi and Pietermaritzburg but the rules do not allow any free residences.
In 1994 MECs eager to have free housing in the second capital embarked on a rent boycott. Although the ANC at one stage called for only one capital Pietermaritzburg the party became silent on the subject as soon as it formed a coalition government with the IFP, which favours Ulundi.
For two consecutive years the annual audit of the province’s Department of Works which administers official residences has highlighted the fact that provincial ministers have been squatting in official residences without paying a cent in rent. The province’s cabinet ignored these reports.
Asked to tell the M&G when the payment of rent by the premier and his cabinet began, Bonga Ngubane, spokesperson for the Department of Works, said his department did not keep records of which ministers had begun paying rent nor of how much they owed.
Mahlati Tembe, the premier’s spokesperson, said he had no information on whether or not the premier had paid rent. Tembe said the premier was in a meeting and not contactable.
Ngubane could only confirm that the MEC for Works, Reverend Celani Mtetwa, had begun to pay rent for his home. He could not establish whether or not Mtetwa had begun to pay off his debt.
The story of the squatting MECs comes hot on the heels of a revelation by the M&G last week that the Department of Works had incurred more than R750 000 in unauthorised expenditure while maintaining the home of the Minister of Home Affairs and IFP president, Mangosuthu Buthelezi (“Taxpayers maintain Gatsha’s home”).
This week Cyril Xaba, chairperson of the works portfolio committee, said his committee was investigating ways of recovering the money from Buthelezi.
Said Xaba: “We regard this money as an unauthorised expense and as such we regard it as recoverable. The expense is being justified due to the minister being the head of the House of Traditional Leaders, but in 1994 when the expenditure began the House of Traditional Leaders did not exist. We believe this money is recoverable.”
This week the MEC for Traditional Affairs, Local Government and Safety and Security, Inkosi Nyanga Ngubane, slammed the M&G’s story on Buthelezi’s home.
Saying “one cannot help suspecting racism” in the article, Ngubane attacked the use of the word “Gatsha” to describe Buthelezi.
Ngubane said: “A contempt also is shown in referring to him as ‘Gatsha’, which is diminutive, fallen in disrepute which no black person would ever use unless to insult him. This does not help in fostering black and white reconciliation, which should never be taken for granted.”
Ngubane claimed Buthelezi’s home could not be an unauthorised expenditure as the auditor general had not remarked on it in his annual audit. However, annual audits do not exhaustively examine every expense incurred. Instead they only audit a sample of expenses.
@Spook agency in trouble over alleged fraud
Paul Kirk
The largest private detective agency in South Africa so large that it threatens to eclipse the government’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies is being investigated for fraud.
More than two weeks ago one of the highest-level investigation teams ever assembled by the South African Police Service raided the offices of the Associated Intelligence Network (AIN).
Search warrants show investigators were looking at police involvement in fraud. However, the police this week insisted that the AIN was the focus of the fraud probe.
Three files were taken from the AIN that detail the firm’s involvement in two murder investigations and a kidnapping case. Detective work by the AIN saw the culprits in each case convicted. But policemen investigating the cases claimed R100 000 in informers’ fees when they did not use their own informers. They are believed to have pocketed the cash, allegedly committing fraud.
Gert Olivier, a director of the firm, confirmed that three files had been seized and that police had questioned him about what they described as “confidential police material” found in one of the files.
Olivier said he was incensed at the timing of the raid, which took place while he was involved in negotiations relating to the sale of one of the AIN’s subsidiaries.
He said he was considering legal action amounting to R79-million against the police. This is the amount of financial damages the company may suffer if the sale of the subsidiary does not proceed. He said he was also upset because his company often assisted the police.
The AIN was set up two years ago and employs some of South Africa’s most famous and infamous investigators.
The controversial former national commander of the murder and robbery, illegal firearms and special projects units of the South African Police, General “Suiker” Britz, is perhaps the AIN’s most high-profile employee.
Britz consistently failed to make arrests when investigating crimes committed by the security forces in the 1980s but boasted great success when investigating anti-apartheid organisations. Detectives in the police today are still awarded the Suiker Britz floating trophy for outstanding detective work.
Internationally famous forensic psychologist Dr Micki Pistorius recently joined the AIN. It is the only private detective company in South Africa to offer the services of a forensic psychologist of her calibre.
Pistorius is famous for her work in catching serial killers and was personally congratulated by the FBI when her team caught a Durban serial killer in less than a month.
After resigning from the police service with post-traumatic stress, Pistorius wrote a best-selling book called Catch Me a Killer. She then joined the AIN.
The company has employed the services of the cream of detectives of the former South African Police.
Former members of the Security Branch, murder and robbery units, commercial crime and forensics units have been poached by the AIN. And it is the AIN’s closeness to the police that has apparently landed it in hot water.
Though official police communications officers were loath to comment, sources told the Mail & Guardian that the AIN was under investigation as it was suspected that the company was paying off policemen to use state resources to help conduct AIN investigations.
The investigating team believes police were being paid to supply confidential records held on the police’s computer databases.
The AIN is supposed to have been provided access to the police criminal records library, the fingerprint library and the computers that hold the ownership records of cars, among other records.
The file seized by police contains only information relating to the ownership of a car.
Police spokesperson Director Strini Govender said he could reveal only the barest details as police were worried any publicity relating to the case may be detrimental to their investigations.
He did, however, confirm that a team of detectives, led by Assistant Commissioner Andre Potgieter, obtained search warrants and raided the premises of the AIN to search for evidence relating to several fraud investigations.
Govender said that the AIN, and not one of the company’s clients, was the subject of the fraud probe.
How the group is structured
The Associated Intelligence Network group is made up of several separate divisions with branches in every major city in the country.
The divisions are:
l Associated Credit Management (ACM) is a division that acts as a credit bureau, advising clients on whether to give credit or not. Most of ACM’s employees are former detectives in the police’s commercial crime unit.
l Associated Intelligence Electronics, which supplies and installs covert and overt surveillance equipment. AIN Electronics also boasts a monitoring room.
Many of AIN Electronics employees were recruited from the National Intelligence Agency and police Security Branch.
l Associated Prevention Services (APS) act as a bodyguard company, supplying VIP protection to clients. Members of APS include former officers of the Special Task Force and police VIP protection units.
l Associated Intelligence Professionals render auditing facilities to clients. Like ACM, many of their staff are former commercial crime unit police officers.
l Associated Intelligence Network renders an investigation service to clients. Included in the staff of AIN are former top murder and robbery detectives and specialist investigators such as forensic psychologist Micki Pistorius.
ENDS