Month: November 2022

Last night, 5^th /6^th  November, Patricia Mashale, who was returning to what she thought was a safe hiding place after visiting her children, narrowly missed being assassinated.  The car she was in, driven by her son-in-law, was closely followed from her daughter’s home to where Mashale is in hiding in Bloemfontein. It was chased for a long distance by a double cab vehicle, and it was only by taking skillful evasive action that the driver managed to lose them. At 01h00 this morning she and her son-in-law were hiding in his car a long distance from their homes.  She could not return to where she has been staying, nor could she take refuge in a police station, as the assassins had obviously been sent by one or more people in SAPS management, who would have alerted stations to inform them if she arrived.  Were she to be detained at a station, she would either disappear to some far-off detention facility, or even die, mysteriously, in a cell. That is the reality of life for people like Mashale who take their oaths of office to report corruption seriously.  In her matter it is the very department tasked with preventing crime that is committing crimes of corruption and violence. That they are able to do this with impunity is the fault of the country’s Executive, and police oversight bodies, including parliament.

Mashale, who has been living in hiding since March 2022 since reporting gross corruption in Free State management to the National Commissioner, is also a human rights defender, standing for justice for many competent, illegally dismissed members, and organizing legal assistance for them – and for herself.  She is making reports to various relevant agencies including IPID, the Public Protector, the Special Investigation Unit, and the Presidency.

The South African government and its parliament should be hanging their heads in shame that, in a Constitutional democracy, Mashale and others  – Thabiso Zulu being in a similar situation – should have to live in hiding, without any support or defense from attack, because they expose corruption, support others who do so, and work for social justice.  Since early 2022, the parliamentary portfolio has been fully briefed on threats to Mashale, and to the gross corruption in Free State management, including disastrous (and dangerous) handling of firearms-related matters.  What purpose does a Presidential Advisory Council serve when whatever is paid to its members would be far better served in assisting real corruption fighters to stay alive?  In the cases of both Mashale and Zulu, the attacks emanate from the police and/or politicians to whom they are linked.

It is common knowledge that these problems start with the current Minister of Police, Cele, who overruled the President when he promised protection for Thabiso Zulu. Many existing problems of nepotistic appointment and corruption (like the Forensic Laboratory fraud which was subject to a forensic audit after it was reported to then National Commissioner Phiyega) originated during his tenure a national commissioner – from which post he was dismissed by President Zuma following a Judicial Inquiry which found, among other things, that he had lied under oath).  He himself stands accused of various crimes, including irregular interference in procurement (by suspended Deputy Commissioner Vuma), classifying a report on hit squads in Crime Intelligence in KZN, and signing off on a corrupt World Tender in 2010 (the document bears his signature).  Why has he not been charged? Why is he untouchable?

Minister Cele has never had the interests of competent black African police members at heart.  When ANC representative and subsequently an MEC in KZN he ignored the plight of twenty seven POCRU members who had been maliciously charged by a right wing old guard management member (an NPO lawyer squashed the charges). He failed to intervene when competent, professional detectives were maliciously charged because their investigations exposed politicians. The case of the Richmond violence in the late 1990s is a conspicuous example :  When one of the province’s best detectives made arrests which threatened to expose ANC leadership involvement in the violence, he and his team were abruptly replaced by a new group, and a cover-up ensued. The team leader and his commander were then maliciously charged and, although completely exonerated, the prosecution had cost the commander his appointment to head detectives in the province -which went to a former security branch member. A brilliant detective, the commander was by far the best candidate, but Cele had been trying to get him to move away from KZN. Why?  A police member whose rapid promotion Cele was pushing had been implicated in attacks on trade unionists in Cele’s South Coast area in the latter 1980s. The real questions are: What was Cele doing in the 1980s before running off for MK training in Angola, and why does he employ an apartheid era policeman from the notorious Murder and Robbery-cum-SB units of the most repressive apartheid era as his advisor?

There is increasing evidence that SAPS management is flouting labour legislation with impunity in dismissing decent, serving members who are not part of corrupt, nepotistic networks.  That is bad enough, but new evidence suggests that some members of management are running criminal, money making syndicates.  It is possible that some act in collusion with employees of the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF).

Evidence started emerging when senior Free State administrator, Patricia Mashale, received emailed notice of her dismissal on 1 March 2022, following her reports to the SAPS national commissioner of alleged corrupt activities on the part of certain members of Free State management.  This dismissal, like many others, is illegal, and court action is underway.  Her salary for February 2021 was never paid, and nor were other monies due to her, such as leave pay.    Hers is not an isolated case : Other members have been dismissed in breach of labour legislation; some are still fighting for reinstatement after winning arbitration awards, and have not been paid monies due to them. Some are waiting for many years of back pay. In one matter the long-serving member has a Labour Court Order in which both the Minister and National Commissioner of Police are in Contempt of Court, and legal action is pending against them both.  Legal actions for reinstatement continue, but management knows that dismissed members lack the funds to secure good legal representation, while they themselves squander taxpayers’ money (which should be used to employ more police members) to prolong the disputes.  Disturbingly, there seem to be no checks on the extent of wastage on legal costs by the SAPS. A senior legal officer admitted that the country could not afford these costs. 

As Patricia Mashale discovered when she started doing her tax returns in March 2022, it gets worse.  Taxes were reflected as having been paid for her after she had stopped receiving a salary at the end of January.  She immediately reported what was happening to SARS, who have been requested to provide feedback.  She later discovered that deductions for policies were also continuing – but her medical aid payments had been stopped.  In other words, she is still on the SAPS system as a salaried employee – raising questions about who is receiving her salary.

On 6 September 2022 Mashale was called by a captain from the Service Termination Centre at SAPS national headquarters. He asked her for information he needed to complete her application to withdraw her pension from GEPF.  She made it absolutely clear to him that the police had no business whatsoever to deal with GEPF on her behalf as it is the employee who applies to the pension fund directly for a pension withdrawal. The police are only required to confirm termination of service. She told the captain to stop what he was doing immediately.

On 1 November Ms Mashale received a text message from GEPF confirming that her pension benefits application had been received.  She had not made any application herself. She called the Pension fund and was told that the application had been received that same day and that the fund was busy processing it. Normally, it takes months to process applications, and from the messages sent, Mashale has worked out that the application had been processed out of office hours suggesting that whoever did it had access to the GEPF database before the office opened.  Co-incidentally, a very senior Human Resources manager against whom a complaint of corruption had, with Mashale’s assistance, been lodged, with IPID is a member of the GEPF board.  She is also on the board of the SSSBC (the Bargaining Council which oversees labour disputes involving police members; that a senior SAPS employee sits on this board represents an obvious conflict of interest). The Human Resources component of the SAPS features in many allegations of mismanagement and corruption (which are on record) and needs to be investigated.

Ms Mashale pointed out to the GEPF employee to whom she spoke that she had never applied for her pension benefits, and she queried how they could be processing this application. She was informed that it was complete, with all the required supporting certified documents, including her identity document and those certified by her bank.  She had never signed any documents, nor had she been to a bank for any certification.  She has also closed the bank account she was using when employed.   Mashale was told that the documentation had been submitted by the police.

In other words, what she discovered was massive fraud, as she herself had not applied for payment nor signed any documents, including at a bank, so her signature has been forged – by the police, if it was they who approached GEPF. According to Mashale, all such communications and documents from provinces must be signed off by Human Resources at Head Office and the National Commissioner SAPS. A case of fraud is being opened.

Other dismissed members have reported receiving GEPF pension payouts without signing documents for it, so the police must have made the applications for them, illegally, if they had not signed personally.  SAPS members who are part of a growing network of police who are trying to expose pervasive rampant SAPS corruption have been advised to obtain pension fund statements from GEPF and check them against deductions made from their salaries.  

IPID has dragged its heels on cases opened by Ms Mashale, including the illegal seizure of her personal cellphone over a year ago. Its failure to investigate the systemic corruption in the SAPS is conspicuous (its refusal to do so at the height of the carnage in Glebelands hostel, Durban, cost many lives). The blame for its apparent lack of will to tackle corruption lies with parliament, which has not, six years after a Constitutional Court order to give IPID Constitutional independence from the police ministry, even tabled relevant legislation.  A full forensic audit of the SAPS salary system, especially relating to dismissed members, is urgently required, and the office of the Auditor-General will be among those who will now be approached to conduct an in-depth investigation into SAPS financial mismanagement – and what it is costing South Africa.