Pretoria – A fingerprint found during a break-in at the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (commonly known as the Hawks) head office in early July has been identified, the parliamentary oversight committee on police heard on Friday.
Acting Hawks head, lieutenant-general Yolisa Matakate, was being quizzed on the Silverton, in Pretoria, break-in at police headquarters in Durban.
“A fingerprint has been identified, as we pointed out [when making submission to the commission],” Matakate told journalists.
She said the print was found “on a door that can’t be opened from the outside”, access could only be obtained from inside the building.
Matakate would not confirm that the print belonged to any of the Hawks’ members working in the building.
Access cards also formed part of the investigation, she had earlier told the committee. The investigation was progressing well but a lot still needed to be done, she said.
“As you will know, there was a break-in in eight offices; computers were taken within the finance environment and laptops from the same environment were taken, but the information that was taken was not at all related to investigations.”
The stolen information mostly related to the financial aspects of the department and included cellphone data on Hawks’ members and budgets, she said. “We have been able to determine that there were three intruders during the break-in, wearing balaclavas and gloves,” she said. It was also determined that the intruders knew there was a monitoring camera at the point of entry.
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