National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi will not cooperate with KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele’s commission into alleged police bias because he does not want to be drawn into a provincial ANC power play.
Sources at South African Police Service (SAPS) headquarters suggested that Selebi saw the commission as part of a turf war between Ndebele and provincial minister of safety and liaison Bheki Cele. Cele is alleged to be pushing for the commission to go ahead because he has a vested interest in its outcome.
It was set to up to investigate ‘alleged police inefficiency and ineffectiveness in KwaZulu-Natalâ€, following the SAPS’s perceived failure to curb an Inkatha Freedom Party invasion of a provincial government imbizo in Nongoma in October 2004.
It started information gathering imbizos in June last year and, almost a year later, had cost R5,9million.
The commission has been sitting for the past three weeks hearing evidence relating to the incident in Nongoma. Its effectiveness has been hampered by the refusal of top-ranking SAPS officials — including provincial commissioner Hamilton Ngidi and senior superintendent Bhekizenzo Mncwango — to obey subpoenas to appear before the commission, reportedly with Selebi’s blessing.
Police sources say the inquiry is potentially divisive and that the matter should have been dealt with through existing complaints structures.
‘It doesn’t make sense to call a commission of inquiry whenever there is perceived police incompetence. You would, for instance, have to call one to investigate the police handling of Makgabo Matlala,†said the senior source, referring to the murder of Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe’s granddaughter.
But the sources also believe Ndebele, increasingly isolated in a staunchly pro-Jacob Zuma province because of his loyalty to Thabo Mbeki, was strong-armed into the inquiry against his better judgement. He is said to have agreed with Selebi that it should not go ahead.
The driving force is Cele, who is understood to be gunning for a finding critical of Ngidi’s competence as provincial police head and a reason to replace him with someone more sympathetic to the ANC.
The theory is that Cele is trying to fill the space increasingly being opened up by Ndebele’s marginalisation.
Ngidi, a former chief of police in the KwaZuluNatal homeland, enjoys the confidence of Selebi, who sees him as a non-partisan professional in a polarised region.
Ngidi’s appointment in March 2004 was a strategic move ahead of the national elections to prevent the victorious party appointing a politically aligned police chief.
Jeff Cele, Ndebele’s spokesperson, said ‘as far as we are aware, there is no pressure†from the safety and liaison ministry. ‘We understand that there have been problems with some witnesses not turning up, but the commission is going on.â€
Bheki Cele did not respond to questions.
The commission’s chairperson, advocate Sithembiso Mdladla, said it had become politicised, and that he had been in constant negotiations with the KwaZulu-Natal government and Selebi’s office in recent weeks.
Mdladla said he had delayed referring the matter to the public prosecutor after discussions over the past two days.
The delays were ‘frustrating, but it is part of the package and I did expect it. Perhaps not to this magnitude.â€
He hoped the appearance of advocate Sema Lebala, who was scheduled to address the commission on May 19 on behalf of the SAPS, would finally get the process on track.
Mdladla said he had assured the SAPS that the commission ‘is not there to grill particular people or to disrupt police procedures, but it is more about procuring information. When we subpoenaed Ngidi, we didn’t call him to testify, it was more a subpoena duces tecum: to make documents in police possession available to us.â€
The IFP sees the inquiry as a political ploy. Lionel Mtshali, leader of the IFP in provincial Parliament, said recently: ‘We have had a good reason to think that the commission was set up with a tacit purpose to settle accounts with the provincial police commissioner, whom the ruling party perceived to be IFP-aligned.
‘The IFP has likewise been suspicious of the commission’s focus on some police stations rather than others. The commission undoubtedly strove to link police inefficiency with a perceived affiliation to the IFP,†said Mtshali.