WC SAPS Commissioner fingered in ‘rogue’ CI unit probe summons senior officers to meeting

In an email, in Daily Maverick’s possession, Jula instructed staff to attend the meeting with Acting Deputy National Commissioner Crime Detection, Lieutenant-General Mark Magadlela, in the Provincial Commissioner's boardroom and to “bring with all dockets they are handling”.

“Any dockets and or inquiries which contain any allegations against fellow police members must also be submitted in the same meeting,” wrote Jula.

Later he adds:

“Commanders to ensure in the interim that none of the members mentioned take action against any other member... No excuses accepted.”

Earlier in January, CI boss Peter Jacobs wrote to National Commissioner General Khehla Sitole, Deputy Commissioner Crime Detection Lieutenant-General Lebeoana Jacob Tshumane and Deputy National Commissioner Human Resources Lieutenant-General Bonang Mgwenya, stating that the CI unit was “rogue” and “should be disbanded and the legality of operations should be departmentally and criminally investigated”.

Senior cops whom Jula has called to the meeting include those who have been allegedly targeted by fellow cops in the unit reporting to Jula himself.

These include Major-General Andre Lincoln, cluster commander for the Winelands district, Major-General Jeremy Vearey, the province’s Deputy Commissioner of Crime Detection, Major-General Mzwandile Tiyo, Western Cape head of Crime Intelligence, Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear of the Western Cape anti-gang unit and the main investigator of several high-profile gang cases.

Also named are four senior SAPS members including a brigadier (who are known to Daily Maverick), as well as several lower-ranking officers, and who Jacobs said did not report to Divisional Commissioner of Detectives Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili, but to Jula instead.

Jacobs said that even if the Jula crime intelligence team had reported to Mosikili “it would have been irregular” as they had worked day-to-day from the offices of Crime Intelligence.

He added that the responsibility for the collection and management of intelligence, as set out in the National Strategic Intelligence Act, was “the exclusive responsibility of the Divisional Commissioner of Crime Intelligence and not a provincial commissioner”.

He added that the organisational structure of the Crime Intelligence division was such that the line of the report “resorts under the command of the Divisional Commissioner of Crime Intelligence”.

Jacobs made the finding and the recommendation that the unit be disbanded after Kinnear had filed a detailed 59-page complaint on 29 December 2018 setting out how the unit, consisting of at least six members, had been targeting colleagues, interfering with investigations and acting criminally.

He detailed how some officers had attempted to interfere with an investigation into the botched assassination attempt of Cape underworld figure Jerome “Donkie” Booysen at the Spur in Kuils River in on 1 August 2018. He also accused his colleagues of illegally intercepting his phone calls, stealing cash from the Mitchells Plain SAPS 13 store, and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by requesting a prisoner to make a false statement against their police colleagues.

Kinnear’s report also detailed that Jula’s crime intelligence unit had identified Vearey, Kinnear and Jacobs himself as suspects.

Jacobs said that it was “the considered view of this office that the existence of the team in its operations and reporting line, outside of the prescribed structure, has served to undermine the integrity of the office of the division Crime Intelligence and possibly the person of the Divisional Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Jacobs.”

Daily Maverick has reliably learnt that some of those summoned to the meeting will not be attending.

A source close to the scandal has termed Jula’s calling of the meeting as “intimidation”.

At the time of writing Daily Maverick had not yet received a response or comment from SAPS spokesperson, Brigadier Vish Naidoo. Naidoo earlier informed Daily Maverick that “matters such as these are internal in nature and will be dealt with internally. Therefore, the matter you are referring to will not be addressed on this platform”. DM