Imtiaz Faze
President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended inspector-general of intelligence Imtiaz Fazel with immediate effect, pending the outcome of an investigation into his conduct by parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence, the presidency said.
In a statement late on Wednesday, the presidency said the joint committee had informed Ramaphosa that it had “received a complaint on the conduct of the inspector-general” and that the committee would conduct an investigation in line with sections 7(4) and 7(5) of the Intelligence Services Act.
It did not specify the nature of the misconduct.
Fazel’s suspension is the latest scandal to hit South Africa’s policing and intelligence system after damning allegations by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in July which have implicated now suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and deputy national commissioner for crime detection Shadrack Sibiya.
Ramaphosa established a commission chaired by retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga to investigate the claims of criminality and political interference and parliament has set up a parallel ad hoc committee to do the same.
At the Madlanga commission, senior police officials accused Mchunu of disbanding a task team probing political killings at the behest of criminal syndicates.
Mkhwanazi testified that Mchunu’s associate, Northwest businessman Brown Mogotsi, acted as a middleman between the police minister and murder suspect Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, said to be the leader of the Gaunteng-based “Big 5” drug cartel. Mkhwanazi told the commission that Mogotsi had received information from Feroz Khan, the head of counter and security intelligence, a division of crime intelligence which monitors domestic crime.
Mkhwanzi alleged that Khan’s division has been at the centre of intelligence leaks and that the executive level of crime intelligence had not been reformed since the 2011 Richard Mdluli slush fund case. Mkhwanzi implicated former police minister Nathi Mthethwa, who recently died in Paris while serving as ambassador to France, Sibiya and Mchunu’s chief of staff Cedrick Nkabinde.
However, while testifying before the parliament ad hoc committee this week, Sibiya accused Mkhwanazi of running an elite and unaccountable KwaZulu-Natal-based political killings task team with a R500 million budget. He alleged that Mkhwanazi’s July media briefing was a “pre-emptive” strike aimed at blocking Sibiya from becoming national police commissioner when Fannie Masemola’s tenure ends.
Masemola himself corroborated Mkhwanazi’s claims at the Madlanga commission and said Mchunu’s directive to disband the task team was an overreach of his ministerial power over the operational structures of the police. He accused Sibiya of implementing Mchunu’s orders and of removing 121 dockets from the task team. The dockets were returned after Feroz Cachalia was appointed acting police minister.
Masemola said he was surprised by the order to “immediately” disband the task team and advocated for a gradual wind down instead.
Crime intelligence boss Dimisani Khumalo also testified before the commission about text messages in which Mogotsi shared information on police raids and the imminent disbandment of the task team with Matlala, in exchange for donations which funded ANC delegates and party activities.
Another witness, identified only as Witness X, provided text messages between Mogotsi, Matlala and ANC member Suliman Carrim with Hangwani Maumela, who has been implicated by the Special Investigating Unit in the R2 billion Tembisa Hospital fraud case.