For obeying the law and her oath of office as a SAPS member, a year in hiding on her own has taken a serious toll on Patricia Mashale’s health, and the financial and emotional wellbeing of her family. She has always been a devoted mother, ever-present for the Mashale children, who range in age from adulthood to an eleven-year old son. The rights of this child, especially, have been seriously violated by SAPS management and our government executive – caring naught for our Constitution – do nothing to stop it. Now his mother has disappeared. On Friday 3 March, at a remand court hearing for a malicious prosecution, attended by her legal representative, the presiding magistrate, ignoring an undertaking given by another magistrate, produced a warrant for Mashale to be arrested for not appearing personally in court. The warrant had been signed by the magistrate from the neighbouring town Botshabelo and, refusing submissions made to her by Mashale’s legal representative, the regional court magistrate instructed that the warrant be executed immediately. The submissions included threat assessment reports by Crime Intelligence made before an attempt on her life in November 2022 in which she narrowly escaped death. The decision by the magistrate was tantamount to a death sentence since Mashale had been reliably informed that bail would be refused, allowing the police to kill her. Reports of police looking for Mashale to execute the warrant gave her no option but to leave what she considered a safe local hideaway and spend days on the move, reminiscent of the lives of those hunted down by apartheid police. From the Executive down, our government, gorging on its obscene appetite for power and wealth, does not care if its police behave exactly like those of the apartheid regime, thereby dishonouring the struggles of those countless of thousands of freedom fighters who died for a society which would implement the values of the Freedom Charter. The conduct of this government is, in some ways, even worse than their predecessors in that they, and their police, blatantly breach the Constitution so many died for with impunity, using taxpayer’s money to do so.
Events leading to Mashale going underground : SAPS encourage, and fund, civil actions by police members, with apparent complicity of certain officers of the regional court
Previous reports have detailed how Mashale’s persecution followed what has been confirmed as a Protected Disclosure to National Commissioner Sitole about alleged corruption in Free State SAPS management. Of relevance to the current court case is that Deputy Free State Commissioner Lesia obtained, under suspicious circumstances, a Protection Order against Mashale based on mildly derogatory comments about him circulating among SAPS members, including Mr and Mrs Mashale (only they were singled out for court action). Because of a recission application the order was only finalized as the second instalment of a SABC Cutting Edge programme on Free Sate SAPS corruption was about to be aired, and it was too late to stop the broadcast. The SAPS had apparently tried to interdict the SABC from airing the second programme after the first had been broadcast but, according to their legal advice, they had all the evidence substantiating the allegations against Lesia, which was also produced during the programme. Mr and Mrs Mashale had been interviewed three months before the broadcast, i.e. when the order had not been finalized. However, Lesia immediately opened a case against them for breaching the court order, and they appeared in court and were given bail. Since late 2021, Mashale has opened more serious cases against Lesia, but they have not been prosecuted, nor has the DPP made any determination since the main docket against him was handed over to their office in August 2022. Ironically the same DPP is, immediately, pursuing all charges by Lesia against Mashale because he claims allegations made against him personally are false, which is clearly a matter for civil, not criminal, litigation. .
Despite this being a civil matter between Lesia and the Mashales, SAPS management turned a blind eye to a huge waste of SAPS resources, when large numbers of police vehicles and members accompanied him to court proceedings, which even intimidated a Family Court magistrate. It gets worse : Instead of ordering SAPS to use their own time and money for civil actions, management has apparently encouraged them to obtain protection orders in the domestic court when allegations of corruption are made against them, at taxpayers’ expense. This has been confirmed by the spokesperson of the National Commissioner during a radio interview late in 2022 and, since then, two other protection orders have been obtained, one – against Patricia’s husband George – by suspended Free State CIS head Agnes Makhele, currently being prosecuted with former Acting Commissioner Phahlane for fraud. The third, most recent Order, against Patricia, was obtained by a management member accused of being implicated in the closure of a case in which a minor was raped. Following the exposure of this rape docket, and an appeal to the Free State DPP, the investigation has been re-opened. This protection order was obtained recently at Trompsberg, a considerable distance from Bloemfontein, and was delivered to the Mashale family home by a uniformed member carrying an R5 assault rifle who forced the Mashale relative who was there with their minor son to sign for it. She asked to call Mr Mashale first, but the request was denied and she was forced to sign for the return of service. By now, everyone knows that Patricia Mashale is in hiding and that she has not been staying at her home address – which is under constant taxpayer-funded surveillance – for over a year, so the prospect of her receiving the Order is obviously zero and SAPS are fully aware of this.
Since Lesia opened this malicious criminal case, the Mashales have had to appear in court on remand. During her court appearance on 16 November 2022, Patricia requested that certain senior public prosecutors, one of whom is alleged to sit on the committee which assigns magistrates to specific cases, not be involved in her case, and that a new team – prosecutor and magistrate – from another province be allowed to deal with their matter, since the Free State team are seriously conflicted because of their relations with Lesia. She is adamant that her request was granted and placed on record on 16 November 2022 at Court 24. She avers that the magistrate told her that, if she did not feel safe, she did not have to appear in court if her lawyer was there. On the next remand date, 31 January 2023, no new, independent, prosecuting team had been deployed; her lawyer was in court representing her, and the case was remanded until 3 March, the magistrate apparently being satisfied that her lawyer was acting on her behalf, as had been agreed, so no warrant of arrest was issued. She assumed that, with her legal representation present, she did not have to appear on 3 March because her situation remained the same, as did the agreement, since there were no known alternative agreements on record. However, a new presiding magistrate ignored representations about the agreement previously reached, and the fact that the Human Rights Commission had, in 2022, confirmed that she had made a protected disclosure about corruption, and she had refused to accept the CIS threat assessment report that Mashale’s life was in danger (which had been done before the attempt on her life in November 2022), insisting that she attend court, failing which an arrest warrant would be issued. She also reportedly refused to accept a remote link up appearance by Mashale. Mashale had been forewarned that, should she be arrested, it had already been decided that bail would be refused. It was a foregone conclusion that, were she arrested and incarcerated she would disappear or die – yet another statistic in over 200 deaths in police custody annually.
The context in which this scenario played out is all important as it represents an increasingly broken justice system in South Africa : Like the SAPS, the prosecution service is deeply divided, with credible dedicated prosecutors and magistrates striving to do what is required while others, some apparently related to corrupt SAPS management members, have become accustomed to serving political and/or nepotistic interests. A climate of intense fear pervades Department of Justice employees in the Bloemfontein court, extending to concerns about the safety of family members, amidst rumours of hitmen deployment. This climate of intimidation and fear may extend to lawyers having to appear in the court as well. How can such circumstances serve the interests of justice, impartially.
Correspondence requesting investigations into reports of the use of manacles in court cells, and the irregular attendance of a prosecutor believed to be related to, and colluding with allegedly corrupt SAPS management members in meetings in which magistrates for specific cases are discussed and finalized was addressed to the National Director of Public Prosecutions, the Free State Director of Court Operations and the provincial Court Manager, and Justice Minister Lamola – and copied to Parliamentary Committees on Justice and Police – on 15 February – but there has been no response whatsoever. Should they not respond by 17 March, this apparently serious perversion of justice will be followed up with the office of the Chief Justice.
The latest threats
Over the weekend of 4/5 March Patricia Mashale, having changed her telephone number, disappeared, fueling fears that her disappearance meant she was dead. It was only on Thursday 9 March that those close to her became aware that she had left what she thought was safe accommodation and stayed on the move. By the end of the week, physically and emotionally exhausted, she was at least safe, but her whereabouts were unknown. Plans to take the court battle forward to the High Court, formulated after the issuing of the warrant of arrest and before her disappearance, are hopefully still on track.
However, the latest development, apparently confirmed by credible sources, is that hit men from KwaZulu-Natal have been deployed to the Free State by SAPS CIS to kill her husband George. Together they have fought corruption in the police for well over a decade (all on record) and they have huge support from non-management police in the Free State, and further afield, endorsing what they call the ‘Mashale train’ that fights corruption and stands for the rights of police members who take their oaths of office seriously. The head of CIS, appointed a few months ago by Minister Cele, is General Khumalo who is said by colleagues to know nothing about intelligence, but is close to Cele. During his brief deployment in CIS under the notorious Richard Mdluli, when all and sundry were welcomed to the CIS fold, around 2011, he was embroiled in a corruption scandal involving thousands of rands, and apparently hastily redeployed to Operational Response. Following serious internal conflict in that component, circa 2018, a home was found for him in the grossly irregular, ministerial controlled, KZN political killings task team, despite his having no detective experience. His home, as a bantustan police member, in KZN is known for its deadly hitmen and, as the murder of corruption buster Sindiso Magaqa has revealed, CIS are among those who make use of their services. Now they are apparently hunting down George Mashale, who has fought the corrupt system alongside Patricia since 2008, during which time then national commissioner Cele buried a damning investigation report, implicating senior SAPS management in serious corruption. This corruption was exposed by Patricia and George Mashale and its architect, Hamilton Bheki Cele would do anything in his power to silence those who are exposing his deep dark secrets (George now has a paper trail confirming irregular ‘grabber’ procurements, as alleged in suspended General Vuma’s Protected Disclosure – believed to have been given to prosecutors). If anything happens to George we at least know exactly who to blame. It seems that President Ramaphosa approves of Cele’s grossly illegal, life-threatening conduct, as he has just extended his cabinet appointment.
Exposed : Contempt for the Constitution and the gross hypocrisy of the Ramaphosa government
The affirmation of human life is central to our Constitution yet, despite the Executive and parliament having been made aware of the serious threats to the life of Patricia Mashale – confirmed by attempts to kill her – for over a year, they have taken no action whatsoever to stop it happening by dealing with the source of the threat, the South African Police Service and its minister. Their sheer hypocrisy is shown up by continuing platitudes about the importance of whistleblowers, and the fight against corruption. Zondo Commission reports are ignored, as are those urging drastic reform of the SAPS and State Security and how it should be done. What is happening is the outcome of the State Capture years, but the New Dawn has taken no remedial steps, and seems to support the sustained efforts of Minister Cele to continue what he started in 2009 : The ruination of the SAPS and a return to apartheid policing.
What has happened to Patricia Mashale, and now George Mashale, is symbolic of the treatment of anyone who dares to expose corruption. Some are arguing that there should be international criminal action brought against this government for its use of taxpayer-funded organs of state to kill people who expose its criminalized, corruption-ridden institutions. The blame goes beyond the governing party and extends to those in opposition, who fail to use the powers they have to make constructive interventions, preferring to spend their time and resources squabbling among themselves for the trappings of power. Patricia and George Mashale desperately need to return to their family home, to nurture their young son, and celebrate his brother’s twenty first birthday with him. Should they try to do so, under present circumstances, those children will probably end up orphans. Who is going to take the Constitution seriously enough to do something about their plight?
The Violence Monitor 