Next month, South Africa’s police bosses are expected to be in the hot seat — they are scheduled to appear in Parliament to answer questions relating to the assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Charl Kinnear.

They will specifically be asked what they have done about recommendations contained in what has become a controversial Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) report.

The report relates to shortcomings in the South African Police Service (SAPS) and focuses on officers who were found to have failed Kinnear.

After aspects of the report were widely publicised in the media because the document was leaked, it was suddenly restricted without explanation thereby making it inaccessible to the public.

Behind lock and key

Last week in Parliament it was heard that the report was being kept in a safe and that police committee members who wanted to read it would have to follow a strict set of procedures.

This included making an appointment to access the report.

During another police committee meeting on 14 October, Ipid executive director, Jennifer Ntlatseng, had explained the report was restricted “because we were investigating a sensitive matter and it implicated senior [police] officers”.

This week, on Wednesday 26 October, Police committee chairperson Tina Joemat-Pettersson said another meeting with SAPS and Ipid was scheduled during the second week of November.

‘Not sufficient reason’

Issues to be dealt with included the Kinnear report, which she managed to access earlier this week.

Joemat-Pettersson said the full contents of the report would not be scrutinised or aired during the police meeting because that information was classified.

But she wanted an explanation about why the Ipid report was sent to the police committee and how they were expected to deal with it.

Despite Ntlatseng’s previous explanation, the committee wanted to know why the report had been classified.

The explanation that it was because senior officials had been implicated, Joemat-Pettersson said, was not good enough.

“This is not a sufficient reason for the committee and even if a senior member of the SAPS… is implicated… they are not exonerated from any form of investigation.”

Joemat-Pettersson then focused on President Cyril Ramaphosa.

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Ramaphosa and the full might of the law

“The president of the country has subjected himself to the full might of the law,” she said, in an apparent reference to the Phala Phala saga.

This matter revolved around a criminal complaint against Ramaphosa.

Former State Security Agency boss Arthur Fraser lodged this complaint, about millions of US dollars stolen in a robbery at Ramaphosa’s Limpopo game farm, against Ramaphosa in June.

During Wednesday’s police committee meeting, Joemat-Pettersson said that Ramaphosa should be respected “for allowing himself to be investigated.”

She continued: “If the president of the country is being investigated, we need an explanation as a committee [as to] why the Ipid report is classified if the real reason is that senior officials have been implicated.”

At the SAPS-Ipid meeting in Parliament called for next month, Ntlatseng would be expected to answer more questions relating to restricting the Ipid report.

Cop bosses must answer up

On Wednesday during the police committee meeting, Joemat-Pettersson said National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola, Police Minister Bheki Cele as well as Hawks and Ipid officials, would have to explain what they had done in terms of recommendations made in Ipid’s restricted report.

“That is not classified information,” Joemat-Pettersson said.

“We need clarity.”

Ipid’s report implicates a number of police officers in having failed Kinnear in the run-up to his 18 September 2020 assassination outside his Bishop Lavis home in Cape Town.

At the time of his murder, Kinnear was investigating several underworld crimes as well as colleagues.

He should have been under state protection due to threats made to his life but was not.

This was one of the key aspects Ipid investigated, resulting in its report that is now restricted.

Recommendations for SAPS

Before it was restricted, Daily Maverick published several articles on the report’s recommendations.

These included that a ”rogue” style unit of police officers in the Western Cape, linked to Crime Intelligence, existed and that four of its members should face departmental charges.

Back in December 2018, Kinnear complained to his bosses about this unit and that its members were working to frame him and some of his colleagues.

Daily Maverick also reported that Ipid lodged criminal complaints against former national police commissioner Khehla Sitole because it was felt Sitole failed to cooperate with their investigation relating to Kinnear.

Sitole, who vacated the top cop seat at the end of March, denied this. 

Ipid, in its report, found that the Anti-Gang Unit in the Western Cape was under-resourced and recommended it be disbanded.

These and related aspects may be discussed next month in Parliament. DM

Caryn Dolley has spent years tracing the footprints of kingpins from across the world. In her latest book Clash of the Cartels, Dolley provides unprecedented insight into how specific drug cartels and syndicates have operated via South Africa, becoming embroiled in deadly violence in the country and bolstering local criminal networks. Available for pre-order from the Daily Maverick Shop here.