Cape Town - A colonel who uncovered apparent corruption in the police’s Crime Intelligence unit is now accusing national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega of defying a court order by blocking him from working in the unit.
Johan Roos, previously an internal auditor in Crime Intelligence responsible for auditing the SA Secret Service account, is applying for a contempt of court order against the police service, Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko and Phiyega.
In Roos’s founding affidavit, he says: “I am again being subjected to unacceptable treatment, but this time it is because of instructions given by the respondents, and Ms Phiyega in particular.”
However, the police are adamant they have done nothing wrong.
This week, Phiyega’s spokesman, Solomon Makgale, said they had complied with an April court order that said Roos should be redeployed, preferably to the section in Crime Intelligence where he previously worked.
Makgale did not respond to questions about what had happened in the Crime Intelligence unit since Roos was transferred out of this section.
According to court documents, it all started as far back as a decade ago, after Roos, then head of Crime Intelligence’s internal audit department, uncovered alleged discrepancies in the Secret Service fund.
He was later told he would be transferred to another unit that was yet to be created.
Roos then turned to the courts to get reinstated in his original job.
In April, the Joburg Labour Court found that Roos should be redeployed, preferably in the internal audit section of Crime Intelligence, or an internal audit section in the police.
The court ordered the police to pay Roos R156 250 in compensation.
Roos says Phiyega said there was no post for him in Crime Intelligence – something he disputes – and he was instead placed in an already-filled position, even having to share a desk.
Solidarity spokesman Dirk Groenewald said Roos had believed his work problems would end with the Labour Court’s judgment, but they had not.
According to Roos’s contempt of court application affidavit, after uncovering and reporting the Secret Service account discrepancies implicating senior Crime Intelligence members, he realised “there was no political will to deal with the issue”.
He said Richard Mdluli, who was appointed divisional commissioner of Crime Intelligence in 2009, and who was later suspended in connection with allegations he had been involved in kidnapping and murder, had initially seemed keen for the allegations of corruption to be investigated.
“The tide changed, and I became the subject of investigation and threats,” Roos’s affidavit says.
The Labour Court’s judgment in April shed light on behind-the-scenes dynamics in Crime Intelligence, and showed that Roos had apparently been sidelined by colleagues.
It said that between 2005 and 2010 Roos was targeted – in one incident, his home was burgled and notes about his investigations stolen.
Roos also received a note in his postbox saying: “U keep digging now its over nice house”.
The judgment said it was not easy to write the incidents off as unrelated when taking into consideration official steps to shut down Roos’s probes.
It also found that, instead of being praised for his work, Roos was “placed in a state of internal exile in the Crime Intelligence Division, with the obvious aim of preventing him from conducting further investigations”.
The contempt matter is expected to proceed in a court next month.
Weekend Argus