Durban - An explosive Parliamentary (inquiry) report has recommended criminal charges be lodged against several police generals serving under suspended national commissioner Riah Phiyega.
Parliament will recommend the generals be suspended pending the finalisation of criminal charges, stemming from allegations they intentionally lied or misled Parliament.
The move to recommend the suspension and lodge criminal charges is unprecedented in the post-1994 democratic dispensation.
Reliable sources have revealed that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) has been roped in to deal with the matter which may see at least four generals, among them provincial commissioners, arrested and charged.
Some include deputy police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nobulele Mbekela, KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni and Phiyega’s former spokesman, Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale.
Several other provincial commissioners are said to have escaped censure after they broke ranks and distanced themselves from the controversial report that sparked the inquiry.
They will be issued with final warnings.
The inquiry was held in terms of the National Assembly Rule 201.
It probed the circumstances surrounding the issuing of controversial statements of support for Phiyega in August in the wake of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana Massacre.
The commission recommended, among other things, that President Jacob Zuma set up an inquiry into Phiyega and former North West police commissioner Zukiswa Mbombo’s fitness to hold office.
After Zuma informed Phiyega of his intention to institute a probe, the generals issued a statement in support of Phiyega after their meeting in Magoebaskloof, Limpopo, attended by SAPS top management on July 15 and 16.
Mbekela, in particular, was outspoken.
She told radio 702 that they would give Phiyega their unconditional support.
“We support the national commissioner even in terms of whatever the Farlam report might be saying. We support her unconditionally. I support her 100 percent.”
They were later hauled before the Parliament Police Portfolio Committee where they were accused of undermining Zuma, before being forced to individually apologise.
In their defence, they told Parliament their statement was issued in response to media reports of instability within top SAPS echelon. They told the committee Phiyega did not speak at nor chair the meeting.
They were asked to produce minutes and recordings.
The minutes, however, told a different story, which meant the generals lied to Parliament about the subject of the discussions and Phiyega’s role in the meeting.
Parliamentary sources privy to the probe said the report was expected to have “quite profound repercussions on the current SAPS management and leadership”.
The committee is expected to discuss and adopt the findings and recommendations of the report, which allegedly calls for the charging and suspension of several generals and the issuing of final warnings to the other members of the Board of Provincial Commissioners.
Conclusions were drawn after the committee members scrutinised the transcripts, recordings and minutes of the Magoebaskloof meeting.
Sources say the initial draft report recommended immediate expulsion. It was after the ANC study group’s intervention, which believed immediate expulsions would be too harsh, that the option of suspensions was taken.
Lying to Parliament is not the same as perjury or contempt of court, both of which are crimes in the context of judicial proceedings.
But lying to Parliament may amount to fraud.
Fraud is committed when a person makes a misrepresentation with the intention of deceiving another, causing actual or potential prejudice.
Lying to Parliament is also a statutory offence under the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliaments and Provincial Legislatures Act, 2004.
Impeding Parliament from exercising its functions and authority is an offence under the Act, punishable by fine or imprisonment of up to three years.
“The recommendations are going to have historic implications. For the first time in the history of the SAPS since the new dispensation are we going to see such drastic changes being made.
“This is really going to remind many South Africans of FW De Klerk’s 1992 night of the generals saga, in which he fired several senior members of the security forces,” said a Parliamentary source.
Committee chairman Francois Beukman confirmed to The Sunday Tribune’s sister paper, The Sunday Independent, that a report would be tabled for adoption on Wednesday, but declined to give further information.
“All I can say is the report will be presented for discussion and adoption on Wednesday. It will thereafter be sent to the executive for the implementation of the recommendations.”
Spokesperson for Acting National Commissioner Hangwani Mulaudzi said General Kgomotso Phahlane was aware of the imminent report but was not privy to its content.
Sunday Tribune