Cape Town – Western Cape top cop Major-General Jeremy Vearey has denied claims in the Sunday Times of soliciting bribes.
The report alleges Vearey had solicited bribes from underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack and claimed to have been able to back up this allegation with a voice recording implicating Vearey.
Vearey said: “This is not me on the voice recording. The person who answers clearly referring to G not V as the article claims.”
In the recording, a man identified as “Mohamed” appears to have a telephonic conversation with someone he calls “G”. The recording relates to an apparent planned exchange of “olive trees” and “roses” for which Mohamed had “four packs of biltong” - the report alleges this was code for money and firearms.
According to the report, Vearey rejected an offer to listen to the recording, but “demanded it be sent to him for ‘forensic analysis’,” the article read. These allegations have emerged just weeks after Vearey lodged an official complaint against possible manipulation of the short-listing process for provincial commissioner.
In his complaint to national police commissioner Khehla Sitole, the deputy national commissioner for human resource management Bonang Mgwenya, and Western Cape acting police commissioner Sindile Mfazi, Vearey said: “I have been informed that I was not shortlisted for the post of provincial commissioner SAPS Western Cape because my qualifications were not attached to the application. This is false and constitutes possible manipulation of the short-listing process.”
Police spokesperson Vishnu Naidoo said the matter would be “dealt with internally”.