In June, a month after whistle-blower Vytjie Mentor had sat through the night with an SAPS Captain laboriously penning an 18-page affidavit which this week formed part of the Public Protector’s State of Capture report, Hawks head, Lieutenant-General Mthandazo Ntlemeza, denied that the unit was investigating three Cabinet ministers or the Gupta family. It was a peculiar denial as it was Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Kgomotso Phahlane who ordered Major-General Jeremy Vearey, deputy Western Cape provincial commissioner for detective services, to personally hand Mentor’s affidavit to Ntlemeza. A month later Veary and Major-General Peter Jacobs, the province’s crime intelligence boss, were both suddenly demoted. What gives? By MARIANNE THAMM.