KZN police boss, Hawks head clash

140413: Mmamonnye Ngobeni Mmamonnye Ngobeni is pleased about decreases but says police cannot win the war against crime working alone.

140413: Mmamonnye Ngobeni Mmamonnye Ngobeni is pleased about decreases but says police cannot win the war against crime working alone.

Published Mar 24, 2015

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Durban - KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, who is again under investigation for her alleged “corrupt” relationship with businessman Thoshan Panday, has admitted that he organised and paid the bills for her husband’s birthday party five years ago, but says she paid him for the service.

“In 2011, I supplied a statement and a receipt to (KZN Hawks head) General Johan Booysen which he filed in the police docket … subsequently, during February 2012, he handed to me a copy of the face of the docket showing the NPA having declined to prosecute,” she said in papers filed with the Durban High Court on Monday.

In an all-out attack on Booysen, Ngobeni has made an application to “strike out” what she says are “scandalous, vexatious, hearsay and irrelevant” allegations made by him in an urgent application he launched in December last year in which he secured an interdict to stop national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega dismissing him.

Booysen argued that he had been cleared of any wrongdoing by advocate Nazeer Cassim SC, who presided over his disciplinary inquiry, but Phiyega sent a letter threatening to discharge him to avoid “reputational damage” to the police and “chaos” because of a breakdown in trust between himself and Ngobeni.

The matter was adjourned until Monday to allow Phiyega to file papers, but Booysen’s advocate, Maurice Pillemer, said he had been told the national commissioner needed more time.

Ngobeni, who is also a respondent, put in a notice of opposition accompanied by the “strike-out” application which has been set down for hearing next month.

Last month, The Mercury reported that a fresh investigation of the allegations made against Ngobeni by Booysen had been conducted by Ipid (the Independent Police Investigative Directorate) resulting in the initiation of an internal disciplinary process, the outcome of which is not yet known.

With regard to the birthday party, Ngobeni has an affidavit from Panday, dated October last year, in which he says as a service provider he “facilitated the birthday party celebrations for the Ngobeni family at the Dish restaurant in uMhlanga for which I was paid directly by Mrs Ngobeni”.

“I made a substantial profit from this transaction and did not in any way sponsor any item. The allegations that I sponsored the birthday party in exchange for monetary gain from the SAPS are without substance and devoid of truth.”

Ngobeni denies ever stopping the fraud investigation and says Booysen fabricated this “to bolster his conspiracy theory”.

“The fact is that he and his division continued to investigate unabated for five years… but when the results of this prolonged investigation was forwarded to the NPA, they declined to prosecute anyone.

“He also failed to disclose that the birthday party case was investigated under a separate case number by him and his members… and the NPA again declined to prosecute.

“He is attempting to obtain undue mileage on these defunct investigations by disingenuously referring to them as though they are currently active when he knows they are not.”

She denied any “strategy” to oust him from his job.

“I could have easily had him charged and prosecuted for various crimes of defeating the ends of justice, perjury, crimen injuria and other offences in respect of his past and present conduct, but chose not to do so as the prerogative to discipline him lies with management. However, in the light of his reckless disregard of the truth, I am contemplating filing charges at the conclusion of this matter.”

Regarding the Cassim report, she said Panday was challenging the advocate’s impartiality because he had once been part of his legal team. The report was being taken on review and she disagreed with remarks the advocate made about her “in her absence”.

She denied having any corrupt relationship with Panday and said the audit report referred to by Booysen made no mention of the fact that the NPA had declined to prosecute her and she assumed this information was not known to the auditor.

She said just because Booysen now chose to work with her, she did not have to choose to work with him.

“I have lost all my trust in Booysen both on a professional and personal basis because of his conduct and the lies he peddled about me.”

Booysen is expected to oppose the application.

The averments that Lt-Gen Mmamonnye Ngobeni wishes to have struck out by a court: ‘to protect my personal and professional reputation’ include:

* That she instructed General Johan Booysen to stop an investigation into a R60-million SAPS accommodation tender fraud involving Thoshan Panday.

* That she instructed Booysen to investigate the investigating officer in the case.

* That Panday paid for the birthday party of her husband, Brigadier Lucas Ngobeni, in May 2010 at a time when Panday was a suspect in the fraud investigation

* That an independent forensic audit ‘reveals a possible corrupt relationship’ between her and Panday.

* That he (Booysen) was charged criminally and internally because she and National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega wanted to stop him from returning to his post.

Statements Ngobeni wants removed

The averments that Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni wishes to have struck out by a court ‘to protect my personal and professional reputation’ include:

* That she instructed General Johan Booysen to stop an investigation of a R60 million SAPS accommodation tender fraud involving Thoshan Panday.

* That she instructed Booysen to investigate the investigating officer in the case.

* That Panday paid for the birthday party of her husband, Brigadier Lucas Ngobeni, in May 2010 at a time when Panday was a suspect in the fraud investigation

* That an independent forensic audit ‘reveals a possible corrupt relationship’ between her and Panday.

* That he (Booysen) was charged criminally and internally because she and national police commissioner Riah Phiyega wanted to stop him from returning to his post.

The Mercury

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