Johannesburg - Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) boss Robert McBride on Wednesday said private forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan had provided credible information of alleged wrongdoing by top police officers, which the watchdog body will probe.
McBride made his remarks in the wake of allegations that he and O’Sullivan were conspiring to assassinate top police officers and high ranking government officials.
Others implicated in an affidavit deposed by Gauteng Hawks boss Major-General Prince Mokotedi on Monday include former Gauteng Hawks head Shadrack Sibiya and suspended crime intelligence agent Captain Candice Coetzee.
Responding to the move by the Hawks (the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation), McBride on Wednesday said: “Paul O’Sullivan has provided credible information to the Ipid.
“It is notable that matters that were reported by him against both Generals (Berning) Ntlemeza (head of the Hawks) and (Khomotso) Phahlane (acting national police commissioner), while I was on suspension, were never investigated by Ipid. On my return I ordered that they be investigated. That is why there is this push-back.”
McBride said this latest action by the Hawks was meant to frustrate Ipid investigations into “very senior policemen”.
He said the allegations leveled against him were “yet another desperate attempt to implicate me and others in wrong-doing – which attempt can never succeed”.
The alleged charges include treason, espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, corruption, intimidation and harassment, defeating the ends of justice and tax evasion, among others.
McBride said that since his appointment at the Ipid, there had been unsuccessful attempts to bring fabricated cases against him and his colleagues, terming these “hare-brained schemes”.
The charges against him were withdrawn in court.
“It is no secret that the Minister of Police has been persistent in trying to get rid of me and keep me from returning to my job. The Hawks have been useful tools in that quest,” he added.
McBride revealed that his investigators took a warning statement from Hawks boss General Ntlemeza. He said during that interaction, General Ntlemeza told Ipid investigators that the Hawks would also be taking “warning statements”.
“It is, therefore, not surprising that a case was registered against us on the very same day,” said McBride.
McBride has challenged Gauteng Hawks head General Prince Mokotedi to take a polygraph test with him live on television.
“The Hawks are fabricating cases against innocent people instead of fighting crime, which threatens our democracy. As South Africans we should all be concerned that we have such people heading institutions in the criminal justice system.”
He said there was nothing untoward about a meeting that took place on 3 December 2016 in Bedforview and which he attended. The meeting was about O’Sullivan’s “Joining the Dots” document.
The report was compiled by O’Sullivan and civil rights group AfriForum. It claims that President Jacob Zuma has taken control of the justice system to ensure the charges he and members of his family, and their associates, face are “derailed”.