Johannesburg - Former Ipid head Robert McBride has told the Zondo commission how Ipid’s performance decreased drastically in the months when he was suspended, with cases being closed and people being transferred between provinces.
McBride appeared at the inquiry for a third day on Monday. He had been suspended in 2015 after he was accused of making unlawful changes to a report on the Zimbabwe rendition. He was also charged with defeating the ends of justice.
McBride later fought for his return and a Constitutional Court judgment ruled in his favour and he returned to Ipid in 2016 after 18 months on suspension.
While he was suspended, Israel Kgamanyane was appointed as acting head of Ipid. McBride said he found a unit in distress on his return with various employees having being shifted from posts and transferred to various departments and provinces.
McBride said about 8, if not more, senior managers were affected by the transfers. He said junior staff was also moved around.
The cost of the transfers cost Ipid around R1 million.
One of the managers that were affected was Matthews Sesoko a former chief director of investigations at Ipid.
Sesoko was suspended in 2015 and was later fired and criminally charged for altering Ipid’s report into the Zimbabwean rendition, but were later withdrawn in 2015. He was later reinstated.
There were various other causalities in Kgamanyane’s brief appointment as head of Ipid.
Kgamanyane also requested that Sesoko hand over the case involving the “Panday” case.
This case involved an investigation by the Hawks in KwaZulu Natal and involved the alleged corruption between policemen and a businessman in connection with the 2010 soccer world cup.
The case was under investigation by Ipid after former Hawks head Johan Booysen reported interference in the case.
Kgamanyane also travelled to the North West and Limpopo and collected case dockets which involved a case against former Hawks head Berning Ntlemeza and one involving a Major General Jan Mabula who implicated in the death of a suspect.
McBride said those three cases have never been prosecuted.
McBride also told the commission that Kgamanyane had a lot of support from former police minister Nathi Nhleko.
Kgamanyane had also lied to Parliament about Ipid’s performance. McBride said Kgamanyane was given a bonus by Nhleko for his performance.
McBride said Kgamanyane manipulated cases and statistics to prove that performance had improved.
“Upon my return to the office, I discovered that there were allegations that of the manipulation of cases to artificially inflate the performance of the Ipid in my absence. Kgamanyane even went to Parliament and reported that performance was much better in the absence of the suspended and transferred, however, this was a blatant lie which was told to make himself look good. Nhleko awarded him a bonus for good performance,” said McBride.
McBride said the Auditor General had also raised questions about cases handled by Ipid.
This involved a duplicate case involving former acting national commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane. The two cases were closed because of the duplication.
Both disappeared or closed in the Ipid system.
McBride continues with his evidence.