Johannesburg -
The beleaguered national police commissioner, General Riah Phiyega, made another blunder by appointing Dr Bongiwe Zulu as acting head of crime intelligence – despite her not having top-secret security clearance.
This means Zulu is not authorised to see documents marked top secret because it is unlawful.
Zulu was appointed last month after the divisional commissioner for crime intelligence and protection services, Major-General Chris Ngcobo, was placed on special leave when a vetting process revealed there were discrepancies in his qualifications.
Ngcobo was sent on leave two days after he instructed crime intelligence officers in Cape Town to open a case of defeating the ends of justice against Phiyega.
This was after she allegedly alerted the Western Cape commissioner, Arno Lamoer, that he was under investigation by the Hawks and crime intelligence for having links with a Cape Town drug dealer.
While Phiyega’s spokesman, Solomon Makgale, said Zulu had a “top security clearance obtained in 2011 and a security clearance obtained in 2009”, it emerged in June correspondence between Phiyega and a senior crime intelligence official that Zulu does not have “top secret” security clearance, and was therefore not suitable to investigate a disciplinary matter against a crime intelligence employee suspended after he allegedly leaked secret information.
The official recommended that another senior crime intelligence official be appointed to conduct disciplinary investigations as he has top-secret security clearance.
He added that Zulu had only a “security clearance at the level of secret” and as such would not be suitable to conduct a probe in a covert environment.
Phiyega had asked the official to “facilitate Zulu with the relevant documentation for the process to resume ASAP”.
As a result, the investigation against the employee was not conducted and he had to return to work because he had not been charged within the specified period.
Dr Johan Burger, from the Institute for Security Studies, said on Wednesday that a crime intelligence head should have a top-secret security clearance because of the nature of the sensitive information they dealt with.
Burger said Zulu would not have access to documents marked “top secret” because it was unlawful for her to read them if she did not have the level of security clearance required.
“You are not allowed to have insight to any document that is top secret. It is an embarrassing situation for her because junior members in crime intelligence who are working under her who have the necessary clearance will have access to the top-secret documents,” he said.
“That is the bottom line – it’s against the Secrecy Act for her to have access to the documents classified beyond her clearance.”
Burger said that for Zulu to be able to execute her duties, she would need to get top-secret security clearance, which was the required level for anyone heading crime intelligence.
DA MP Diane Kohler Barnard said she was not surprised that Phiyega had made another blunder.
She said there had been massive administrative failures under the commissioner.
Kohler Barnard lashed out at Phiyega, saying there has been chaos in crime intelligence since she took over.
“Crime intelligence is totally dysfunctional,” she said. “Police stations do not have crime intelligence officers, and then you wonder why crime is on the increase under Riah Phiyega.”
The Star