African News Agency
The ANC in the Western Cape put its weight behind deputy provincial police commissioner Jeremy Vearey yesterday in what has become a very public spat between him and Western Cape MEC for Community Safety Dan Plato.
“Over recent weeks, Plato has taken the illegal step of publicising untested and unsubstantiated allegations via the media which is not only an attack on the ANC, but also an attack on Vearey and the police service whose members are being killed on a daily basis,” said ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs.
The most recent allegations against Vearey – a former Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadre and bodyguard for President Nelson Mandela – were leaked to the media early this month.
In it, Vearey is alleged to have links with Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir – this through an alleged payment worth millions – and a gang-ordered murder in Strand.
Plato has discussed these allegations in press briefings and expressed that he was happy the leak had occurred.
Previous allegations linked to Plato about Vearey were made in 2012 and 2013.
This includes the compilation of a dossier on alleged conversations between Plato and late businessman Jeffrey Franciscus, wherein the claim was made that Vearey had worked with gang bosses.
In 2013, Vearey was again accused of links to gang members – this time by Plato’s informer and the man who was “guided by angels”, Pierre Mark Anthony Wyngaardt.
The previous allegations have, however, all remained unsubstantiated.
“The timeline preceding these latest events point to a systematic pattern of attack on General Vearey and, by implication, the ANC,” said Jacobs.
As such, Jacobs said, the ANC was seriously considering legal action.
“The ANC will use all the means at its disposal, including a class action suit, to protect the victims of gangsterism and drugs from corrupt politicians who seek to ensure that our people continue to live in complete squalor, as was the case under the illegitimate apartheid regime.”
On Plato’s remarks since the leak, Jacobs said Plato had not “followed due process”; had acted irresponsibly by repeating the “contents of untested affidavits amounting to fabricated slander”; had violated Vearey’s rights by spewing forth “vague and embarrassing untruths about him in public”; and – he alleged – had put Vearey’s life in danger.
Jacobs added that through his public discussions on the matter, Plato had jeopardised his relationship with, and the confidentiality of, his informers and the public who could have approached him with information.
Jacobs – who recently returned to his position within the ANC after an investigation into an alleged attack on former colleague and ANC researcher Wesley Seale – went on to thank Vearey and his police peers for the work they did in combating crime and gang violence.
Among the successes listed by Jacobs were the arrests of Ralph Stanfield and two others on charges relating to an illegal gun-licensing racket; the arrest of a former police officer and an arms dealer; and the convictions of so-called high-flyers Colin Stansfield, Rashied Staggie and Mallick Pietersen.
In thanking those who “contributed to eradicating our country from the chains of apartheid”, Jacobs made mention of two other Struggle stalwarts, Brigadier Andre Lincoln, who also served as a bodyguard to Mandela and is now the Cape Town cluster commander, as well as former MK soldier Major-General Peter Jacobs.
“Dan Plato’s actions are nothing short of sedition – an attack on General Jeremy Vearey, the police service and the state,” said Jacobs.