The DA said on Sunday it would continue to pursue its request for a parliamentary hearing into crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli.
This was despite media reports that police portfolio committee chairwoman Sindy Chikunga had rejected the Democratic Alliance's request for a special hearing.
DA spokeswoman Dianne Kohler-Barnard said Chikunga's decision had not yet been communicated to her in writing.
“It is not within the powers of the chairperson to unilaterally make such a ruling,” she said.
The DA also disagreed with Chikunga's reported reasons for denying the request, which included the assertion that the “committee was not a court of law and so it could not do anything”.
It was well within the powers of the committee to investigate Mdluli, Kohler-Barnard said.
At the next meeting, she would put a formal motion to the members of the committee on whether special hearings should be undertaken.
“The necessity of such hearings is compounded by revelations of a second secret service slush fund and a reported “pledge” by Mdluli to assist President Jacob Zuma and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa,” she said.
On Friday, the Mail&Guardian reported that a Hawks team investigating Mdluli had uncovered a concealed bank account which was used as a slush fund.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the Sunday Times, Mdluli said he was not a friend of Zuma.
“I am not close to Jacob Zuma or any other politician or any other faction,” he was quoted as saying.
“I was arrested and spent 21 days in jail. If I was really a friend of the president, I would have been released there and then.”
In a letter last year, Mdluli pledged to support Zuma, City Press reported.
Mdluli was reinstated in his position earlier this year after fraud, corruption and murder charges against him were dropped.
The prosecutor who had been investigating Mdluli, Glynnis Breytenbach, was suspended on Monday.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was considering laying criminal charges against Breytenbach, the weekly reported.
She could be charged with obstruction of justice.
Breytenbach was ostensibly suspended for her role in another case, but two weeks ago she asked NPA head advocate Nomgcobo Jiba to review the dropping of charges against Mdluli, according to the Sunday Times.
Jiba denied receiving the request, the paper reported.
City Press reported that Breytenbach had told the NPA that new evidence implicated Mdluli in serious crimes. - Sapa