Mpumalanga police commissioner Afrika Khumalo — alleged in a sworn affidavit by drug baron Glenn Agliotti to have profited from drug trafficking — has been drawing a salary for 16 months while staying at home on sick leave.
Khumalo told the Mail & Guardian he is still on ”incapacity” leave, but would not say what is wrong with him or when he is expected to recover.
”I am recovering. I’m coming back to Mpumalanga,” he said, before coughing loudly. ”I am the police commissioner of Mpumalanga. Nothing has changed. As soon as I am better, I’m coming back.”
Khumalo has not reported for work since March 23 last year. He claimed to be ill on the day he was due to respond at a press conference to media reports of Agliotti’s allegations.
In a sworn affidavit to the National Prosecuting Authority on January 11 2007, Agliotti said Khumalo was implicated in an international drug-trafficking syndicate involving national police commissioner Jackie Selebi, who is on extended leave pending corruption charges.
In the affidavit Agliotti said Mandrax was being smuggled from Mozambique and that crooked cops in South Africa would confiscate the contraband and return it to the crime bosses only in return for a hefty fee.
He claimed the smugglers would sometimes have to pay Khumalo as much as R1-million to recover the contraband and that the racket included liquor, cigars and cigarettes.
In his affidavit, Agliotti said he was not directly involved with Khumalo, but was connected to him through his chain of ”smugglers” in the underworld. He said Paul Stemmet, a security expert who worked under Selebi, and a former security policeman, Carl ”Calla” Botha, had direct links with Khumalo.
The South African Police Service has refused to comment on the Khumalo matter.
”You are not getting answers from me,” said national police spokesperson Selby Bokaba. ”Tell them [your editors] I refused to comment. I am speaking on behalf of the law. I am not going to discuss people’s sicknesses. Why is it that we have never read about your editors being sick? What makes Afrika so special, why is he of interest to you?”
Captain Dennis Adriao, spokesperson for acting national police commissioner Tim Williams, asked for questions in writing, adding that he had many media inquiries to attend to first.
A communication officer in President Jacob Zuma’s office, Terrence Manase, could not say how long police were allowed to be on sick leave with full pay. He referred questions to government spokesperson Themba Maseko, who was repeatedly unavailable and failed to return messages left on his phone.
Meanwhile, Mpumalanga’s acting provincial police commissioner, Rex Machabi, has seized all case dockets from the Nelspruit branch of the provincial organised crime unit after Mandrax tablets with a street value of nearly R4-million were stolen from what was a supposedly secure police storeroom on July 1.
Machabi confirmed that a duplicate key was used to open the store-room and steal the drugs.
”This is an indication of an inside job by one of our own members. Therefore, I have decided to remove all dockets from the organised crime unit offices in Nelspruit and keep them in my office,” he said.
Machabi said the dockets will now be assigned to the provincial investigators. He gave the unit 30 days to recover the drugs and arrest the suspect, failing which every member would be removed from it.
Provincial DA leader Anthony Benadie said the Nelspruit cops were merely following a precedent set by their superiors. — African Eye News Service