Parliament – MPs on Tuesday lashed senior members of the South African Police Service (Saps) for failing to take any action against police officers suspected of illegally benefiting from contracts with their employer.
Senior Saps officials squirmed in their seats as MPs demanded answers on a sample of 32 employees within the service who were identified by the Auditor General as having possibly benefited from contracts worth several million rand.
Less than two weeks into the job, acting national police commissioner Lesetja Mothiba was forced to concede on behalf of his management team that 11 months after the AG having identified the 32, Saps had failed to take any action against a single officer.
"There is no case we can say is concluded," said Mothiba, promising MPs a full report by month end on whether the potentially corrupt employees were being disciplined.
MPs were not impressed, with the Inkatha Freedom Party's Mkhuleko Hlengwa saying he did not "buy that timeline".
"We just concluded the 16/17 financial year. This [allegations against officer] is from 15/16...it's an open-ended chaos. I don't buy it," said Hlengwa.
When MPs inquired, the police had to rely on the AG to pick up possible corruption within the service.
Deputy National Commissioner for Human Resources Bonang Mgwenya admitted there was no system in place to detect whether an employee was linked to a company doing business with the Saps.
"We currently do not have an electronic system whereby by the press of a button we are able to detect Mgwenya is doing business with whoever...," she said.
Mothiba accepted full responsibility for the failures, adding that he would meet with the Sapa internal audit team in a bid to identify shortcomings.
"I've taken serious note of what the committee has said and going back I'm going to make sure we interrogate each and every aspect, go into detail and we will give the committee a very much detailed report not only on each and every one of these cases but what we have in place to prevent these things."
Hlengwa challenged Mothiba and the Saps to prove him wrong in his conclusion that police management were protecting corrupt police officers.
"I take a strong exception to the fact that Saps could do this to South Africa," said Hlengwa.
"These investigations have not been concluded because friends are protecting friends and it's an abuse of office and this presentation today amounts to nothing more or nothing less other than a malicious compliance to just come here and try and hoodwink us to think that something has been done when absolutely nothing is being done."
Scopa chairperson Themba Godi said it all boiled down to leadership stability within the Saps.
"I was just counting in 23 years, general you are now the 6th man at the helm of the SAPS from General Fivaz to Selebi to Cele to Phiyega to Phahlane...and that might not be your issue. If only the politicians were here to take cognisance that we need stability in the organisation to be able to build systems as we need them," said Godi.
The Public Service Commission PSC also weighed in during the briefing. Commissioner Selina Nkosi said the PSC had been writing to the police ministry for three successive years to present a list of officials with potential conflicts of interest, with no response. Godi said this was unacceptable.
"It cannot be correct and there is no response at all to a chapter 10 institution that does its work in terms of the Constitution writes to the minister and says here is the problem and you don't respond," said Godi.
"What has come out now is that maybe the political leadership is not interested in dealing with these issues."