Deputy Minister of Police Polly Boshielo told parliament’s ad hoc committee on Tuesday that she never believed National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola would want to spy on her.
Boshielo appeared before the committee investigating KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s allegations of corruption within the South African Police Service (Saps).
The deputy minister confirmed that she was the “DM” [deputy minister] who received the WhatsApp message forwarded by suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya.
The message expressed concerns about the alleged irregular procurement of R30 million worth of spy equipment by Crime Intelligence.
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Police Minister Senzo Mchunu had apparently not approved the procurement, as per the regulation requiring his approval for any procurement of more than R10 million, the messages continued.
The message further advised Boshielo to “exercise vigilance” with communications.
Sibiya has previously denied writing the WhatsApp message.
Boshielo: ‘I did not respond’
Boshielo told the committee that she did not respond to the message.
“The reason why I did not respond is that you know ministers do not deal with procurement issues. It is the national commissioner as the accounting officer who deals with procurement issues. I did not respond because I did not believe that a person of that calibre [deputy national police commissioner] doesn’t know the difference,” she said.
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She said she forwarded the messages to Masemola, who told her the contents of the WhatsApp messages were false.
“He phoned me and said, ‘DM, this is not true, people want to bring friction between us because they see us working well together’.
“The commissioner assured me that he would investigate it and give me a report. He indeed investigated the matter, involved the SSA [State Security Agency], and sent me a message to confirm that he had investigated it and dealt with it.
“I informed General Sibiya that I would be sending the messages to the national commissioner.”
She said she did not believe the part about being spied on because she had a good working relationship with Masemola.
“The way we were working together, I never thought in my life that the national commissioner and his team would want to bug my phones or emails.”
PKTT disbandment
Like her fellow deputy, Cassel Mathale, Boshielo learned of Mchunu’s directive to disband the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) on social media. She, too, believed the letter was fake.
“The minister called me around 6 or 7 January to inform me that the letter that was circulating was not fake. I was a little bit disappointed that I thought we were working together, and he could have, maybe, as deputy ministers, discussed it with us.
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“Maybe as the executive authority, he felt that he didn’t want to discuss it with us, but I was disappointed.”
Boshielo confirmed that although the meeting she held with Mchunu, Mathale and the national commissioner did touch on the PKTT, “it was not discussed in full; it was just in passing”.
“Remember, I did not even know what their operations are and what they’re doing because we were still busy calling different sections to brief us, so I did not necessarily know about it, and we did not discuss it in detail,” she said.
Consultations
Boshielo believes that Mchunu and the police commissioners should have met and been able to discuss the issues that were raised in that letter, “rather than start writing letters to each other”.
“The issue with the letter is that it was already sent to the national commissioner, and it was addressed only to him. If he had sought input from me as the deputy minister, I would have done so. It was of no use for me to even ask for input because the letter was already out, and he confirmed it was his letter.”
She further said Mkhwanazi’s 6 July media briefing surprised her, because “we had meetings and he didn’t raise those issues in the meetings that we normally have at Saps”.
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However, she did admit that there were issues among top police management, which affected operations.
“In a meeting with deputy ministers, the minister and the national commissioner, we raised a concern that the minister and the national commissioner are not communicating as they should and as a result, it frustrates us and also other senior managers,” she said.
“We asked them to sort out whatever it is so that we can work. We also raised that they should meet with General Mkhwanazi and General Sibiya and sort everything out.”
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