Cape Town - Intimate details about how police spies kept tabs on provincial top cop Arno Lamoer, and how he allegedly reacted when finding out about the covert operations, look likely to be revealed in the Cape Town Labour Court.
Information in the court documents is said to be so sensitive that the papers are locked up in a judge’s office.
The Labour Court matter has been brought by Brigadier Mzwandile Tiyo, former acting head of the Western Cape’s Crime Intelligence unit, who for more than a year has felt victimised for having investigated Lamoer.
Lamoer was suspended and is facing criminal charges for allegedly accepting bribes.
Tiyo, who is on sick leave, believes he was first picked on in January last year when Lamoer allegedly blocked him from becoming the province’s Crime Intelligence head.
Tiyo’s attorney, Richard Brown, said that Tiyo now wanted to either be appointed to the position he was denied, or to earn an equivalent salary.
Brown would argue that Lamoer’s actions amounted to occupational detriment to Tiyo. A date is yet to be set for the Labour Court proceedings.
Tiyo had been investigating Lamoer, Stellenbosch police cluster commander Brigadier Darius van der Ross, provincial head of inspectorate Brigadier Kolindhren Govender and his wife, Bellville station commander Brigadier Sharon Govender, who were arrested about three weeks ago.
The four senior officers appeared in the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court with Plattekloof businessman Mohamed Saleem Dawjee and Dawjee’s son Mohamed Zameer. Together they face 109 charges, including ones of corruption and racketeering.
The Sunday Independent understands that the Labour Court papers delve into the probes into Lamoer and his relationship with Dawjee, and that an application may be made to keep the papers out of the public domain because they could interfere with the criminal case against Lamoer.
Brown told The Sunday Independent that Tiyo had started feeling victimised when he was on the brink of becoming the permanent provincial Crime Intelligence head.
On December 30, 2013, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega had announced that all police officers acting in a post that had been vacant for more than two years would be appointed. “The very next day Lamoer withdrew the vacancy and, on January 2, in a lateral move appointed (Major General Peter) Jacobs. We have evidence that indicates that was deliberate on the part of Lamoer,” Brown said.
Tiyo had been acting as Crime Intelligence head for more than two years, had applied for the position, and Brown said he had been in the final stages of the interviewing process.
But when Tiyo returned from leave on January 17, he found out Jacobs had been given the position.
“We do believe that Tiyo is being treated unfairly due to his role in the collection of evidence which ultimately led to the arrest of Lamoer and others,” Brown said
He said Tiyo complained to national Crime Intelligence, and a senior official there then reported the matter to Phiyega.
Brown said Phiyega called Lamoer and that this had then led to allegations that she tipped off Lamoer about probes into his actions. There were transcripts of this call.
The National Prosecuting Authority previously found there was no reason to act on a defeating the ends of justice complaint against Phiyega, relating to her allegedly tipping off Lamoer.
Referring to the way Tiyo was treated, police spokeswoman Brigadier Novela Potelwa told Weekend Argus Tiyo had been appointed as acting provincial Crime Intelligence head in 2013.
“The acting arrangement was terminated when the position was filled on January 1, 2014 with the lateral appointment of a major general,” she said when asked why Tiyo had been removed as acting head.
In other police actions involving Tiyo, his Paarl home was raided about two weeks ago and it emerged he was being investigated for drunk driving, an allegation Brown rejected. Police said the raid was part of the drunk driving probe, but a search warrant said suspected fraud was committed.
Brown provided The Sunday Independent with a copy of the warrant. It said that a licence disc, number plates and vehicle engine, which needed to be checked for tampering, were to be seized.
But Brown said this was all linked to undercover work Tiyo had been involved in, and that because of covert operations, Tiyo had been permitted to change his number plate.
Brown provided a copy of an application, dated January last year, from police to the Director of Public Prosecutions asking that Tiyo’s cover be extended by letting him change the number plate he was using.
The application said: “Intelligence collected and obtained by this office indicates the current ongoing and existing threat on the said mentioned officer’s life still exist, therefore the requested extension is needed.”
Brown said Tiyo had wanted to use a different number plate because of all the probes he was conducting.
“It was not only as a result of his investigation into Lamoer et al, but rather including these together with his other work,” he said.
Tiyo was then involved in a car accident last April. At the time Tiyo, who Brown said had not been driving, was using the alternate number plate on his car and police apparently recorded this plate.
Brown said there was a particular police colonel who refused to believe that Tiyo had not been driving at the time of the collision.
Potelwa, without naming Tiyo, said members of the police’s vehicle identification security system had gone to the Paarl home “with a search warrant as part of an investigation into a case of drunk driving, which was opened in April 2014”.
Weekend Argus