Johannesburg - Former deputy national police commissioner Hamilton Hlela has been convicted on charges of corruption relating to the awarding of multimillion-rand contracts.
Hlela pleaded guilty and was fined R76 000 and sentenced to 10 years in jail, suspended for five years, by the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.
His conviction comes a year after he handed himself over to the Hawks. He had been out on free bail.
The court found that in return for the contracts, a service provider paid school and university fees for the children of Hlela, then-head of police supply chain management, as well as for tickets, travel and accommodation for him and his wife to attend two rugby matches.
Hlela took early retirement in 2010 after being embroiled in the controversial R1.6 billion police headquarters lease deals that led to Bheki Cele being fired as national police chief.
Cele, at the 2012 commission of inquiry into the lease deals, said Hlela had wanted him to sign a multimillion-rand public-private partnership agreement to build new police headquarters.
Cele said he had refused to sign the papers because he was suspicious of Hlela’s dealings.
Later, Hlela told the board of inquiry into Cele’s fitness to hold office that severe strain and extreme pressure from the commissioner had led to his early retirement.
Hlela was the chief witness for the team leading evidence in the inquiry that led to the axing of Cele.
This week Cele criticised Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, the then-head of the Special Investigating Unit, Willie Hofmeyr, and the Moloi Commission for using Hlela as their star witness. He said he had told Hofmeyr he was aware of the allegations of graft against Hlela.
Cele said Madonsela investigated and her findings led to the commission of inquiry.
Madonsela found Cele had acted “improperly” and “unlawfully” in relation to the leases for new police headquarters in Pretoria and Durban. She said Cele had failed to prevent procurement processes being followed or had facilitated the manipulation of the police’s supply chain management and procurement processes.
Cele said it was interesting that the star witness in the inquiry had admitted in court “he is corrupt”.
“The painful thing about this is that I gave Thuli and Hofmeyr information about Hlela. I told them that he is corrupt, the company that he awarded tenders (to) was paying for his children’s school fees and he was getting tickets to travel overseas to watch rugby.”
Cele said Hlela was not a credible witness.
Terry Motau, SC, who was a member of the Moloi Commission, said: “The recommendations we made were based on the evidence presented before the commission. There is no connection between the evidence given by Hlela to the commission and the case he has been convicted of.”
Cele noted that Hlela had pleaded guilty to corruption.
“I hope Thuli and Hofmeyr have consciences. They used a criminal to testify against me. In other, words they listened to a criminal.
“What I can say is that when you go to the summit of the mountain, there is no option but to go down. It has happened to Hlela, it will happen to Thuli too.”
Sunday Independent