Durban - While the future of KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni hangs in the balance, her husband has leapt to her defence, arguing that the probe against her was aimed at shielding former police boss Bheki Cele.
Ngobeni has been accused of a corrupt relationship with Durban businessman, Thoshan Panday, and not following procedure in the procurement of police accommodation.
In an interview this week, Lucas Ngobeni, a police brigadier, said his wife had been targeted to deflect attention from Cele, now the deputy minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. He questioned why the Hawks had not investigated Cele who approved the R60 million tender for police accommodation during the 2010 World Cup, while still national police commissioner.
Ngobeni was appointed in 2009 and her five-year contract renewed in 2014.
The tender, awarded to Panday, has been mired in controversy.
Panday, it has been claimed, is close to the Ngobenis. It is also alleged that he paid for Lucas’s surprise 45th birthday party at Gateway Theatre of Shopping in 2010. The R60m tender and the birthday triggered the suspension of Mmamonnye.
In an affidavit filed in the Durban High Court in December 2014 by then provincial Hawks head, Major-General Johan Booysen, it was claimed an independent forensic audit report showed a ”possible corrupt relationship” between Mmamonnye Ngobeni and Panday.
While admitting his family’s association with Panday, Lucas Ngobeni said Panday never paid for the birthday bash, and his wife had never played a role in awarding the R60m tender.
He said neither of them had met Panday before the party and that staffers at his wife’s office had sought Panday’s services to arrange the party. Afterwards, there was no communication between them, he said.
“He organised my party and billed us. We paid him.”
He said the bill was around R39 000.
On the allegation that his wife blocked the investigation into the R60m tender, Lucas Ngobeni said this was not true.
He then asked why she was the only person probed when she had not been involved in approving the tender.
Lucas said something was amiss because, for six years, different people had investigated his wife and still found no evidence against her.
“I can tell you my wife is not a criminal. She is a law abiding citizen. We have been married for close to 27 years and I know the kind of person she is. I bet my last cent my wife is not a criminal.
“The question I[‘m asking is why the Provincial Commissioner should receive a notice of intention to suspend her. For what?
“It makes no sense. But I understand they would do everything they can to protect that (Cele’s) signature,” he said.
He said Cele should have been at the centre of the investigation.
Last week the acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane served the provincial commissioner with her notice of suspension, pending the outcome of the board of inquiry established to probe her fitness to hold office.
Phahlane gave her until Thursday this week to give reasons why she should not be suspended.
She responded on Wednesday last week but Lucas Ngobeni would not give details of her response.
He said they were waiting for a response from the national commissioner before they made their next move.
But she would not go down without a fight, he said.
Sunday Tribune