/ 20 July 2011

Cele sends regrets, cancels press conference

Cele Sends Regrets

Police National Commissioner General Bheki Cele has again cancelled his media briefing to react to maladministration claims by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

This was the second time that the briefing has been cancelled.

“We apologise for any inconvenience that the postponement and subsequent cancellation of the press conference may have caused to any media house or individual journalist,” said Cele’s spokesperson Brigadier Sally de Beer.

“The national media centre of the SA Police Service regrets to advise members of the news media that the press conference that was to be hosted by the National Commissioner of Police, General Bheki Cele, on Thursday 21 July 2011 in relation to the Public Protector’s report has been cancelled,” she said in a brief statement.

De Beer said she had not been provided with any reasons for the cancellation.

Cele was originally scheduled to address the media about the matter on Tuesday, but then cancelled the press conference citing “unforeseen circumstances” and postponed it to Thursday.

Last week, Madonsela questioned Cele’s role in two police lease deals worth a total of R1.78-billion.

Madonsela’s latest report found that a lease agreement between the Public Works Department and businessman Roux Shabangu, for a headquarters building for the provincial South African Police Service in Durban, is invalid.

In her previous report, released in February, she made similar findings about another police lease in Pretoria, also between public works and Shabangu.

In both Durban and Pretoria Madonsela found that the lease agreements were invalid because their procurement had not complied with constitutional requirements and other regulations.

In both cases she said the police — Cele in particular, although he denies this — had identified the buildings before involving the public works department, which is what they should have done.

Public works then chose, irregularly, to deviate from open tender procedures, negotiating directly with Shabangu and settling on higher than market-value leases, which compromised the police’s stretched operations budget.

Cabinet ‘disadvantaged’
Meanwhile, government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi was quoted as saying by Independent Online on Wednesday that the Cabinet had been caught off guard by the release of the report.

“The executive is disadvantaged right now,” Manyi said.

“Now she has decided to do it [release the report] publicly. Quite frankly, she did it in a manner that was not anticipated by the Cabinet. The executive has not had the time to look at the report and apply its mind and the public is already making pronouncements on what should be done,” Manyi said.

The Against the Rules Too report was received by the Presidency on Thursday, the same day she made her findings public. In that report she said the lease agreed to was three times the going rate and that processes had also been improper. Madonsela said the lease would cost R1.1-billion over 10 years.

“It’s in the public domain with various [people] commentating on it already. We can’t stop that now,” Manyi said. “The public is pronouncing on the matter, while the real people who the report is asking to do something get the report at the same time as the public.” – Sapa and Staff reporter