Presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj on Friday denied that President Jacob Zuma has offered embattled police commissioner General Bheki Cele a diplomatic posting, and refused to discuss reports that Cele’s dismissal was imminent.
“In which democracy does a president first tell the media of such a step and not take the proper process?” Maharaj asked.
He added of reports of an ambassadorship: “There is no substance to those rumours.”
The department of international relations also denied any knowledge of a diplomatic posting for Cele and said South Africa’s ambassador in Japan was not about to leave.
“We don’t know anything about those reports, we don’t know where they come from,” spokesperson Clayson Monyela said.
“Ambassador (Gert) Grobler is our representative in Japan. He is not about to leave.”
Matter of time
In the latest of several press reports suggesting Cele is fighting for survival because of his role in the police headquarters scandal, the Times on Friday cited sources as saying his removal from Wachthuis was assured and only a matter of time.
The newspaper said Cele had been offered a diplomatic posting as a face-saving measure but “wanted to clear his name first”.
Pressure has mounted on Zuma from all quarters to act against Cele and Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde since Public Protector Thuli Madonsela released her final report on the headquarters saga last Thursday.
She found that the leases for both police headquarters in Pretoria and Durban were unlawful and that the conduct of Cele and Mahlangu-Nkabinde was improper, unlawful and amounted to maladministration.
There has been no official comment from the presidency on the report and government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi has conceded that the executive was struggling to contain the fallout from her report into the over-priced lease deals with businessman Roux Shabangu.
Turmoil
Manyi accused Madonsela of putting the government at a disadvantage by not submitting her report to Cabinet first before making it public, saying it had thrown into “turmoil” its “road map” for dealing with the matter.
And ANC treasurer general Mathews Phosa has suggested her findings should be debated and possibly amended by Parliament.
“Parliament must make the call — Parliament must examine everything is a transparent manner … we must take the report to Parliament and debate it publicly and recommend to Cabinet,” the Cape Times on Friday quoted Phosa as saying.
He added that the government could not act like “cowboys” by firing senior officials because Parliament was “supreme”.
Cele this week twice scheduled and then cancelled press conferences to respond to Madonsela’s report.
On Friday, he unveiled a tombstone for seven policemen who died in a helicopter crash near Witbank but police spokesperson Sally de Beer said there would finally be no media statement from the general on Madonsela’s findings.
“It has been cancelled.”
Political risks
Some analysts have suggested that Zuma would be loath to act against Cele because he needs his political support to secure a second term as ANC president at the party’s conference in Mangaung in December next year.
His predicament carries an echo of that which faced former president Thabo Mbeki when criminal charges emerged against former police chief Jackie Selebi ahead of Mbeki’s bid for another term as ANC leader.
It was expected that Zuma would rather sacrifice the less powerful public works minister in an eventual Cabinet reshuffle.
But political analyst Steven Friedman said there was both risk and potential gain for the president in acting against Cele, a political ally from KwaZulu-Natal.
“There is a risk for the president, he will alienate some, but there is also potential gain in taking a strong stance against corruption because this is what the ANC constituencies want. He will gain support among the rank and file.”
Friedman said the Cele case had shown the pitfalls of Zuma’s strategy of placing key allies in top jobs in the security cluster.
“It gives him the opportunity to find more effective ways of consolidating support than relying on a few allies in the security cluster.” — Sapa