National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele has rejected as “malicious” allegations that he lied to Parliament over the resignation of three generals who were in charge of supply chain management for the police service.
Cele told MPs on Friday that the three, including former deputy national commissioner Hamilton Hlela, tendered their resignations after he had asked the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) to probe R40 billion in tender deals sealed under their watch.
But the Sunday Times reported that Hlela, Matthews Sivundla and Stefanus Terblanche disputed this, saying they were pushed out after questioning two dodgy lease deals allegedly pursued by Cele.
This came after the Sunday Times’s exposé a month ago alleging that Cele had personally insisted on a R500 million rental contract for a new building for police headquarters in Pretoria without its going out to tender.
The report claimed the contract was signed with businessman Roux Shabangu, a long-standing friend of President Jacob Zuma, at a price of R520m over five years.
The generals also said Cele wanted to lease a building in Durban from the same businessman for R260m, but claimed they had refused to approve this.
DA police spokeswoman Dianne Kohler Barnard said that if the SIU probe found Cele had lied to the National Assembly’s committee on police, she would call on him to resign.
Hlela told The Mercury yesterday that he did not resign, but was instead given “a golden handshake” to leave. Asked whether this related to the lease of the buildings, he said: “There were processes (under way) for the lease of the Pretoria building and the one in Durban. I don’t want to comment.”
But SAPS spokesman Colonel Lindela Mashigo said this was not true.
“We have proof of submissions of applications for early retirement,” Mashigo said.
“One would want to refute the issue of a golden handshake to the generals. What they got is that which is financially entitled to them, and nothing more. There was no golden or silver handshake.”
He said it was “malicious” to suggest that Cele had misled Parliament when briefing the committee on Friday. Asked why the generals had been allowed to leave without any steps having been taken against them, Cele had told MPs this was necessary to ensure the efficiency of the SAPS supply chain division.
Mashigo also stressed that the supply chain division “is at the centre of an ongoing investigation by the SIU. The management of supply chain division was expected to appear before the portfolio committee (last week) and they knew what the MPs were going to ask, so it looks like they opted out”, he said.
On the issue of the leases, he again referred questions to the Public Works Department, which handles rentals on behalf of state departments. However, the public works department – also the subject of an SIU probe – did not respond to questions.
Kohler Barnard said there were now two versions of alleged graft at the police department in the public arena. She said the DA would submit questions to Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa to get to the bottom of the issue and to find out whether the two new buildings were needed.
Mthethwa told Parliament last week there was no need for a new police headquarters, even though a R4bn plan for one was canned earlier because of cost concerns.
Cele on Friday described the SAPS supply chain division as awash with mismanagement and even tender fraud. He said several functions had been outsourced – in many cases to the same company, Midway Two, resulting in a rapid dwindling of capacity in the department. The Sunday Tribune reported that Hlela allegedly had close links to the company.