Parliamentarians want KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi to explain retracting serious allegations he made against former police minister Bheki Cele.
This comes after Mkhwanazi withdrew the allegation in a text message to the parliamentary inquiry on Thursday.
Testifying before the inquiry that is probing allegations of corruption in the criminal justice system two weeks ago, the KZN police boss said Cele allegedly sent attempted murder-accused tenderpreneur Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala a bank account and money was deposited into that account.
On Thursday, Chief Evidence Leader, Advocate Norman Arendse, SC, told the inquiry that they received a message from Mkhwanazi and asked the inquiry to take a break before they clarified the message.
After the break, Arendse said Mkhwanazi has withdrawn the allegation.
“The team that was working on the analysis got the bank account wrong, and that it is not a reference to you, so the allegation is withdrawn with due apologies from Lieutenant-General Mkhwanazi for any inconvenience or hurt caused,” he said.
In response, Cele said: “Okay”.
EFF leader Julius Malema said the apology must not necessarily be directed at Cele, as Mkhwanazi made the allegation at the Ad Hoc Committee.
Malema said if Mkhwanazi has got anything to say, he has to write to the committee and say it if he got his facts wrong.
“We can’t be members of this committee, and people come and say things here. When they retract, we hear them like any other person. It must come to us, then, from then communicated publicly even to the person who was mentioned wrongly,” he said.
ANC MP Chief Whip Mdumiseni Ntuli said the matter was serious and the allegation could not be withdrawn merely by sending a message.
Ntuli said they were told that there were people who have the capacity to design and send a message on behalf of one’s number without people getting involved in that.
“This was a presentation that was by Lieutenant-General Mkhwanazi under oath, so it has to be treated the same way that it was when it came to us,” he added.
DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach said Mkhwanazi can’t send a little note but should come explain why he withdrew the allegation.
“He has done a lot of reputational damage; it can’t be undone by a little note,” Breytenbach said.
Committee Chairperson, Soviet Lekganyane, said Mkhwanazi will have to amend his sworn statement, and the committee will make a decision so that he can make a public apology.
“It would be very good to have in a forum like this one where such statements were made, so that questions can be asked. If he has to be directed to apologise, this is accordingly directed and that apology served to General Cele and South Africans as a whole,” Lekganyane said.
Arendse said his colleague Lerato Zikalala has already conveyed to Mkhwanazi that he needed to address the committee in writing.
“The reason why I raised now is before honourable members have the opportunity of asking him (Cele) questions, perhaps, in relation to that part when we sit here with the message that it is withdrawn,” he said, adding that they did not want further damage should Cele send out a media statement on the matter.
Meanwhile, Cele clarified his interaction with Mkhwanazi when he had asked him to speak to another top officer about a job offer.
Mkhwanazi had testified that the former minister tried to push Crime Intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo from the SAPS to protect a Lieutenant-General Khan from investigation and disciplinary proceedings by taking a post in Gauteng.
He had said he had never spoken to Cele ever since that encounter.
Cele explained that he had been approached by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi about recruiting a person to lead the Crime Warden initiative after his term as minister.
Cele said he had asked Mkhwanazi if he could speak to Major-General Khumalo, who is a district commander in KZN, about the job offer, and he had since turned down the offer.
“There is nothing sinister in recruiting people… I don’t know what the big deal was about it,” said Cele.
He also said he had spoken to Mkhwanazi after that incident, when there was a murder in Newcastle in June.
“It is not like he never spoke to me. No, we did speak,” Cele added.
