DA Calls For Immediate
Suspension Of Kzn Provincial Police Commissioner
About this Article
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Dianne Kohler Barnard
DA Spokesperson on Police
DA Spokesperson on Police
The DA wants questions answered about the R60
million police accommodation tender scam in KwaZulu-Natal. The initial investigation into the scam was
inexplicably stopped by the Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General
Mmamonnye Ngobeni, almost a year ago. Now the Hawks have re-opened the
investigation she declared closed. Given the Provincial Police Commissioner’s
history of interfering with the investigation, she must be suspended
immediately pending the outcome of the re-opened investigation.
Last year a police investigation was opened into
the tender scam, centred around Umhlanga businessman Thoshan Panday. Just four
days after the investigation was launched, Provincial Police Commissioner
Ngobeni put a stop to it. Three weeks later, Ngobeni’s husband held a 40-guest
birthday party, allegedly paid for by Mr Panday.
The investigating officers then appealed to the
Hawks to take over the investigation. It would appear that the Provincial
Police Commissioner could not be trusted to investigate without fear or favour,
given her links to Mr Panday. Now that the investigation has been re-opened,
Commissioner Ngobeni should be suspended immediately, before she is given any
opportunity to use her position to obstruct the investigation yet again.
National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele must have been aware of these developments and the possible involvement of his Provincial Police Commissioner and her husband, Brigadier Lucas Ngobeni. Yet he has chosen to do nothing. I have written to him today asking that he suspend the KZN Commissioner and Brigadier Ngobeni with immediate effect until such time as the investigation is completed. As Parliamentary questions I put to the Minister of Police in this regard have remained unanswered, I shall also be writing to the head of the Hawks, General Anwa Dramat, requesting that he focus on investigating the relationship between Commissioner Ngobeni and Mr Panday.
National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele must have been aware of these developments and the possible involvement of his Provincial Police Commissioner and her husband, Brigadier Lucas Ngobeni. Yet he has chosen to do nothing. I have written to him today asking that he suspend the KZN Commissioner and Brigadier Ngobeni with immediate effect until such time as the investigation is completed. As Parliamentary questions I put to the Minister of Police in this regard have remained unanswered, I shall also be writing to the head of the Hawks, General Anwa Dramat, requesting that he focus on investigating the relationship between Commissioner Ngobeni and Mr Panday.
