SMSgate: Riah Phiyega's strange ways

Let’s start at the very beginning.

Last week, Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard, shadow police minister and perpetual thorn in the ruling party’s side, gave a television interview to news channel ANN7 in which she expressed displeasure with Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega and events which took place within Parliament’s police committee.

One of the recommendations of the Farlam commission report on Marikana was that an investigation should be held into Phiyega’s fitness to hold office. Top police management, apparently in response, released a statement pledging allegiance to Phiyega. At last week’s police committee meeting in Parliament, these provincial police commissioners were forced to issue humiliating apologies for their politically-biased action to the committee, the state president and the country.

It was in the wake of this fiasco that Kohler-Barnard made her disapproving comments about the commissioner and the situation to ANN7.

At 20:41 last Thursday, Kohler-Barnard received an SMS signed off as from Riah Phiyega. It read: “I am black, proud, capable and get it clear you can take nothing from me eat your heart out. I am not made by you and can not be undone by you” (sic).

Kohler-Barnard proceeded to reveal the SMS to Parliament’s police committee at its next sitting, the following Tuesday. The DA MP told her fellow committee members that she was horrified that Phiyega would come after her in this way when she was merely doing her job.

“I sense a threatening tone and I sense it all over,” Kohler-Barnard reportedly told the committee.

“I thought we had left the days behind when, for example, prosecutors were snatched from their homes and disappeared for days. Or people tried to raid people’s offices. But it seems we have not. The fact that she would go to the effort to find my personal number and send me a message like that, then it means it’s time for change.”

This news of Phiyega’s SMS was greeted by committee members from across the political spectrum with anger and disbelief.

“Where does (Phiyega) get the audacity to do that?’ asked African National Congress (AND) MP Livhuhani Mabija.

The Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF’s) Phillip Mhlongo called the message “tantamount to mutiny”.

Committee chairman Francois Beukman, an ANC MP, instructed Gauteng police commissioner Lesetja Mothiba to consult with Phiyega on whether she had indeed sent the message, and come back to the committee on Wednesday with a full report.

Seemingly pre-empting this, however, South African Police Service (SAPS) spokesman Solomon Makgale sent out a statement on Tuesday night announcing: “The SMS was indeed sent by General Phiyega and was not meant for public distribution by Ms Kohler-Barnard.”

The statement continued: “If Ms Kohler-Barnard feels threatened by a statement of self-affirmation then it is unfortunate. The message was certainly not intended as a threat and it is difficult to see how it could be interpreted as such.”

By Wednesday morning, social media was abuzz with the news of the SMS, but Makgale’s statement appeared to have swung some of the public sentiment Phiyega’s way. On Twitter, although most agreed that the SMS was inappropriate, many responded with derision to the idea that Phiyega’s message could be construed as threatening to Kohler-Barnard.

Parliament’s police committee members took their seats on Wednesday in the presence of a healthy contingent of journalists, and the police commissioner herself.

Phiyega showed no signs of strain on her way in, smiling widely and greeting committee members. Beukman told those gathered that the “issue of the SMS” would be dealt with after tea.

The committee pored over the recommendations of the Farlam report and Operation Fiela; were introduced to Operation Tornado; and discussed the problem of police stations lacking generators. (More than 300.) One tea break passed, and then another.

Finally, when all other agenda items had been exhausted, Beukman broached the topic of the infamous SMS.

The SMS, he said, required “serious reflection on the part of the accounting officer (Phiyega)”.

And that was it. Beukman adjourned the meeting. The “full report” he had demanded the meeting be presented with on the subject of the SMS was neither seen nor heard.

Doorstopped by journalists hoping for elaboration, Beukman would only say that the committee had “a lot of other issues” to concern themselves with.

Undeniably true, but what had caused the sudden shift in tone? Were the powers-that-be unhappy with the idea of MPs from across the political divide uniting to slam President Jacob Zuma’s appointee as police commissioner?

Phiyega simply told journalists: “I will comment at an appropriate time one day.”

Rather more voluble on the subject was Kohler-Barnard, who suggested that someone in the committee may have been “leaned on” to shut down discussion of the SMS.

After the committee had decided jointly the day before to discuss it, Kohler-Barnard said she was “quite stunned it was dealt with in a single sentence”.

Kohler-Barnard distanced herself from the idea that she had felt the SMS to be personally threatening.

“I don’t feel threatened by Riah Phiyega or her spin doctor,” she said. “There’s nothing they can do to me”. She described the SMS as an “attack on Parliament”, however, saying that there is normally a “strict wall” between MPs and department employees such as Phiyega.

Phiyega turns out to have quite the history of texting those who displease her. Police union secretary Oscar Skommere reportedly told the media on Wednesday that he had previously received an “intimidating” SMS from Phiyega in the “middle of the night” after publicly commenting on her performance.

In July, meanwhile, the Daily Maverick reported on an SMS sent by Phiyega to police expert Cees de Rover after he testified against the SAPS at the Marikana inquiry.

The message De Rover received read: “You seriously misrepresented SAPS in the Marikana Commission. You shall never be able to assist this service. We are disappointed by the subjective approach you adopted and the clear focus on your self-enlightened interests a real pity indeed General Phiyega (sic).”

At the time, Daily Maverick’s Ranjeni Munusamy wrote: “The SMS displays that the national commissioner is feeling the mounting political and public pressure against her. But it also sheds light on how pressure can come to bear on subordinates who do not toe the line.”

The pressure against Phiyega mounts with every passing day. The currently unanswered aspect of the latest SMSgate, however, is the question of who intervened to spare her a Parliamentary grilling, and why.

“The chair assured us all he would deal with it most severely,” Kohler-Barnard said. “I don’t know what happened – but I will find out.” DM

Photo: Police commissioner Riah Phiyega speaks at the SA Police Union's central executive committee meeting in Pretoria on Friday, 16 November 2012. Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA.