The Democratic Alliance (DA) has complained to the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), saying police had failed to investigate fraud charges against former ANC spokesperson Carl Niehaus and former Gauteng premier Paul Mashatile.
”Little progress has been made in the case I laid six months ago against Mr Carl Niehaus and others allegedly implicated because they did not take action against his admitted fraud when he was CEO of the Gauteng Economic Development Agency,” said DA spokesperson Jack Bloom.
He said senior SAPS officer Richard Mdluli, now commissioner in the Crime Intelligence Division but formerly deputy provincial commissioner for Gauteng, should be investigated for contravention of the South African Police Service disciplinary regulations.
Bloom charged Mdluli had misled him into believing investigations were ”almost finalised”, when in fact key people in the Niehaus saga had not been interviewed.
”Key people, including … Mashatile [now deputy minister of arts and culture], former premier Mbhazima Shilowa [now an MP] and former provincial minister Angie Motshekga [now minister of basic education] have still not been interviewed.
”The charge against them is that they allegedly failed to report Niehaus’s fraud, which is an offence in terms of … the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.”
Niehaus himself had also not been interviewed, despite Mdluli’s assurance to the contrary.
”It appears to me that this case was not taken seriously by Mdluli, but hopefully better progress will now be made in this important matter.
”I would like to think that delays were not influenced by the fact that it involves senior political figures,” said Bloom.
The DA laid the fraud charges in February after Niehaus admitted to forging signatures of senior Gauteng officials, including Mashatile, to secure a loan from a businessman who had wanted favourable conditions related to Johannesburg property deals.
Mashatile was the provincial minister of finance at the time of the alleged fraudulent activities.
Shilowa, Motshekga and Mashatile were accused of failing to report the attempted fraud by Niehaus.
ICD spokesperson Grace Langa said a decision on whether to investigate Bloom’s complaint would be taken once an ICD investigator and the unit’s Gauteng head had met.
”What I can confirm is that we did receive the complaint today [Tuesday]. We have a process whereby we have to register cases, evaluate them and classify them before checking if they should be investigated or not.
”It usually takes about a day, but the investigator and the provincial head have to meet first,” she said.
The provincial head and the investigator were expected to meet on Wednesday, Langa said. — Sapa