Robert McBride: The Hawks are not acting in
the interests of justice
NEWS24
20
DEC 2016 07:43 (SOUTH AFRICA)
Independent Police
Investigative Directorate (Ipid) boss Robert McBride has refused to submit a
warning statement to the Hawks, saying the Hawks' latest move was the
culmination of a campaign against him. Lizeka Tandwa, News24.
The
Hawks sent a letter to McBride asking him to make the warning statement by
11:00 on Monday, Eyewitness News reported.
In
his response to the Hawks McBride said the matter was ten years old and had
been dealt with at the time.
"Clearly,
the Hawks are not acting in the interests of justice," he said.
"The
manner in which this matter is being pursued by the Hawks is similar to the way
in which they pursued spurious and frivolous charges against [Finance Minister
Pravin] Gordhan, which the NPA had to withdraw abruptly."
He
said he believed the move by the Hawks was related to Ipid having taken a
warning statement from Hawks boss Berning Ntlemeza last week, "during
which he threatened that the Hawks would be taking statements against Ipid
investigators".
Taking
legal advice
"It
is interesting that the charge of defeating the ends of justice is not a
priority crime that falls within the mandate of the Hawks, yet they are devoting
a lot of resources to pursue it."
McBride
said he was going to take legal advice on the matter.
Eyewitness
News reported the statement was needed in relation to an attempted murder case
from 2007 in Boksburg and a case involving a reportedly stolen BMW X5 for which
McBride was being investigated. The incidents occurred during McBride's term as
Ekurhuleni metro police chief.
Reports
emerged that senior police and Hawks investigators have been conspiring to
falsely implicate McBride in the attempted murder case.
A
whistleblower told Eyewitness News he was contacted by a police lieutenant
colonel in 2007 to draft an affidavit to implicate McBride in the attempted
murder of cash-in-transit kingpin Marco Singh.
Singh
was arrested while McBride was metropolitan police chief.
Controversial
report
The
State withdrew charges against McBride and his two co-accused, former director
of investigations Matthew Sesoko and former head of Ipid in Limpopo Innocent
Khuba, in November.
The
trio was under investigation by the Hawks' Crimes Against the State (Cats) unit
for fraud and defeating the ends of justice in their investigation of former
Hawks head Lieutenant General Anwa Dramat.
Dramat
was accused of involvement in the illegal rendition of Zimbabwean nationals in
2010.
The
findings contained in the last report on the matter, and which McBride signed,
exonerated Dramat and differed greatly from an earlier report implicating him
in the renditions.
According
to law firm Werksmans Attorneys, portions of statements by individuals who
implicated Dramat in the illegal renditions and which appeared in the first
report were left out of the second report.
McBride
has maintained that the earlier report did not take all the facts into account. DM
Photo: Robert
McBride is seen at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg on Thursday, 30
September 2010 during an appeal by the Citizen newspaper against an award of
damages and defamation granted to him. Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA
