Brass who questioned dodgy property deals were quickly let go, they say
Sep 5, 2010 12:00 AM | By STEPHAN HOFSTATTER and MZILIKAZI WA AFRIKA
Police generals hit back at national commissioner Bheki Cele yesterday after he linked them to corrupt procurement deals in parliament.
General Cele told MPs on Friday that generals Stefanus Terblanche, Matthews Siwundla and Hamilton Hlela had suddenly resigned after he had asked Willie Hofmeyr's Special Investigating Unit to probe suspect deals worth billions approved by their supply chain unit since 2006.
But at least one of the generals says Cele forced him out because he had refused to follow his orders to approve dodgy office deals worth over R700-million in the past three months.
Terblanche and Hlela yesterday confirmed that Cele personally led the drive to relocate the SAPS national and provincial headquarters in Pretoria and Durban for a total cost to taxpayers of R760-million - providing documents to support their claims.
Correspondence shows that SAPS and public works officials questioned the need for the moves. The SAPS finance section warned in June that its budget was already exhausted and budgets for other policing "priorities" - such "tactical response teams" and "provincial war rooms" - may have to be stripped to fund the dodgy leases.
Terblanche - who headed the SAPS property division until he was suddenly called in and offered early retirement, he said - told the Sunday Times that Cele had misled parliament when he told MPs his (Cele's) role had ended with identifying the police's accommodation needs, and that he had left the rest up to the Department of Public Works.
This minimal - and blameless - role in leasing a new headquarters building without going to tender is how Cele described his involvement after the deals were exposed by the Sunday Times.
Terblanche's version of events is supported by documents seen by the Sunday Times. They show that Cele signed off a public works cost approval for R520-million for a 10-year lease for the police's new Pretoria headquarters and a preliminary cost analysis for a four-year lease for the Durban headquarters .
The documents show Cele approved the SAPS's paying R4.7-million a month for a building Transnet said had been sold on August 4 for less than R40-million. Yesterday Hlela said Cele had asked him to lease this building for 10 years.
Both Terblanche and Hlela said they had been unaware of questions raised about their alleged involvement in supply chain irregularities until Cele raised the issue in parliament.
"I only learnt about this in the media yesterday - it was never discussed with us," Terblanche said.
"I have nothing to hide. If Cele was aware of this gross corruption, I should have been suspended - and if they could prove a prima facie case, I must be charged with that. Instead, I got a golden handshake."
Cele had personally approved his package days after Terblanche refused to sign authorisation for the Pretoria and Durban leases, he said.
"I wasn't convinced we needed that space and I shared my concerns with my immediate superior, General Hlela," said Terblanche.
Hlela said Cele was pushing people around to make sure the SAPS moved into the new offices in Pretoria and Durban.
"Cele initially gave me verbal instructions on March 24 this year to look at moving the SAPS top brass into Sanlam Centre. The police culture is not to question your seniors, so I never asked the general about it."
The move to the two new buildings was not advertised, he said. "Cele didn't test the building market for other suitable and available buildings, he just wanted us to move (to the buildings)."
Hlela also denied having resigned. "General Cele lied to parliament. I didn't resign, but he offered me a golden handshake, I have a letter with me that he signed. I have been with the SAPS for 30 years but I can tell you now that my approval was done (within) an hour."
Documents support Hlela and Terblanche's insistence that Cele was directly involved in authorising the dodgy leases, which never went out to tender as required by Treasury rules.
A letter written by finance head Lieutenant-General SJP Schutte on June 8, 2010, to the SAPS supply chain management divisional commissioner points out that the department was short of the funds required to sign a new lease in Durban because Cele had "personally indicated and approved the relocation of the Office of the National Commissioner to another building" (in Pretoria).
A procurement instruction from public works also points out Cele himself had "identified" the Transnet-owned building as suitable for the new SAPS headquarters in Durban.
In correspondence seen by the Sunday Times, a public works official notes with "grave concern" that the SAPS had identified the Transnet building itself rather than going out to tender.
"It must be (questioned) as to whether SAPS have, by acting outside of their mandate, not created expectations. Failure to meet such expectations can possibly further result in severe negative consequences to the state as a whole."
The SAPS's Durban headquarters accommodation needs should follow "due processes and be advertised in the open market for a realistic comparison as to the market trends", the official says.
The need for Durban's headquarters to almost treble in size -from 13368m² to the new 45499m² headquarters - also raised eyebrows. The SAPS needs assessment signed by Cele and KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Monnye Ngobeni on June 22 says the space is needed to relocate the family violence, child protection, sexual offences, and crime intelligence units from Inanda, Phoenix, Durban Central, Brighton Beach, Umlazi, Chatsworth, Pinetown and Chatsworth to the new building. Schutte's letter questions why these services should be moved "away from communities". "An important aspect thus entails how was the need established, and is the extent of the need justified in relation to other priorities and costs," he concludes.
Colonel Lindela Mashigo said Cele's office undertook to respond to detailed questions but had failed to do so by the time of going to press. Cele's spokesman, Nonkululeko Mbhata, said the department had answered all relevant questions during the parliamentary hearing on Friday.Hlela, Terreblanche and Sivundla had resigned from the SAPS and most of these issues were under investigation, she said.
Cele phoned the Sunday Times complaining he was being ambushed because he had not been given sufficient time to answer questions put to his staff.
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