Cape Town investigator Talmakkies dodges critical disciplinary hearing day with retirement announcement

Reynold Talmakkies, a Safety and Security Directorate officer in the City of Cape Town facing mounting accusations, retired on the day a disciplinary hearing against him was set to commence.

Ahead of his job at the City, Talmakkies had been with the South African Police Service.

He faced various allegations relating to his actions while employed by the City, as well as his time as a cop.

The disciplinary Talmakkies faced related to the City and would probably have focused on his time there.

Daily Maverick sent him a message on Tuesday, 19 March 2024, asking if he would comment on the matter, but did not receive a response by publication.

Disciplinary day retirement

The day before, on Monday, 18 March, City spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo told Daily Maverick: “The Disciplinary Hearing for this case was scheduled to proceed on 14 March 2024.

“The City can confirm that additional charges were added which formed part of the hearing that was scheduled to proceed on 14 March 2024.

“Mr Talmakkies retired with immediate effect as of 14 March 2024.”

The City of Cape Town previously told Daily Maverick that Talmakkies was “a head in the Special Investigations Unit”.

That unit was previously the focus of scrutiny.

It was initially named the Special Investigating Unit — but this was the same name as a national unit so was changed to the Safety and Security Investigations Unit (SSIU).

Read more in Daily Maverick: Police Minister Bheki Cele intervenes amid fresh claims of ‘rogue’ operations in Cape Town cop unit

In 2017 Patricia de Lille, who was mayor of Cape Town at the time, ordered that it be shut down because she charged it was being used for reasons other than what it was set up for, including, in some instances, undermining political opponents.

The following year, 2018, the unit was reinstated.

In 2022 fresh claims of “rogue” operations linked to the SSIU surfaced and Police Minister Bheki Cele undertook to investigate its activities.

Fraud

As for Talmakkies, aside from his name being associated with the SSIU, he faced other direct accusations.

Some linked to his time as a police officer.

In April 2021, Daily Maverick reported that he had been accused of fraud in a case, stemming from 2016, that involved alleged docket tweaking linked to a police station in Mpumalanga.

Read more in Daily Maverick: City of Cape Town’s special investigations head charged in cop fraud case

He was also arrested in December 2021 in a case relating to allegations of tender fraud.

Issues surrounding him did not end there.

‘Shocking’ security breach

In November last year, Daily Maverick reported that a Western Cape high court judgment found he had acted inappropriately towards a magistrate who was presiding over a murder case in which his son, David, was an accused.

That murder case — which stems from an attack in December 2020 when a man named Chad du Plessis was fatally stabbed outside a relative’s home in Strandfontein — is ongoing.

In the related debacle involving Talmakkies, the magistrate had recused herself because he approached her between previous proceedings in the murder case, which she effectively felt could be viewed as an attempt to have influenced her.

However, the high court set aside her recusal, finding she had done nothing wrong and that Talmakkies’s actions equated to a security breach.

Read more in Daily Maverick: City of Cape Town investigator acted ‘inappropriately and shockingly’ in son’s murder case, court finds

The judge had found: “It is worth bearing in mind that, though what the gentleman in question did was clearly highly inappropriate and shocking, particularly if one considers that he also identified himself as a father to one of the accused in the trial; the conversation did not taint the impartiality of the Magistrate…

“I would be remiss if I did not mention that what happened here suggests a serious breach of security.”

That same month that the judgment was handed down, in November 2023, and following Daily Maverick reporting on it, the City of Cape Town confirmed that Talmakkies had been suspended.

It is understood reasons underpinning his suspension led to the disciplinary hearing — the start of which coincided with his retirement. DM