Cape Town’s metro police chief described newspaper allegations of corrupt practices at metro police offices in Gordon’s Bay as ”unfounded”.
”It is not as bad as the [newspaper] report. Eighty percent of the allegations in the report are unfounded,” metro chief Bongani Jonas said on Monday.
Jonas said an investigation into the allegations, which included reports of officers selling meat from their offices, started immediately.
Jonas said he had already received a report from the director in charge of the area under which Gordon’s Bay fell, Wilton Ganjana.
This preliminary report will form the basis for further investigation, said Jonas.
He said the metro police’s internal and civilian-affairs division has been tasked with conducting a ”thorough” investigation.
”It started immediately and the first report must be within 48 hours [by Wednesday].”
Jonas said a cursory glance at Ganjana’s report indicated that much of what the newspapers reported was not true.
However, he emphasised he did not want to pre-empt an investigation that could yield contrary results.
Using Ganjana’s initial report, compiled soon after the allegations surfaced, Jonas said no butchery was operating at the Gordon’s Bay offices.
Nonetheless, one officer had brought ”by-products” such as Vienna sausages and offal to the station. This, said Jonas, constituted an irregularity, but was not as serious as the newspaper report made it out to be.
”People can blow it out of proportion … Even if it is horrendous, I won’t hesitate to shout there is corruption, there is fraud. I would be the first to say prosecute them [in the event of wrongdoing],” said Jonas.
Meanwhile, Robert MacDonald of mayor Helen Zille’s office said she supported a commission of inquiry into the allegations.
Jonas said that this commission could possibly mean the investigation, already underway. — Sapa