YCLSA statement on Ntlemeza's dismissal
13 April 2017
As the YCLSA we note the appointment of the acting head of the Hawks, Lt.Gen Yolisa Matakata.
As the YCLSA we feel vindicated that Mr Berning Ntlemeza is finally out of office. The YCLSA has consistently been alerting society of the indisputable, insensitive and unforgivable shenanigans of the former apartheid security personnel by the name of Berning Ntlemeza. We hope that this marks the end of a period in which the Hawks were used for a particular political agenda instead of tackling crime.
As the YCLSA has been consistently saying, there was no way Ntlemeza could have served the South African society with diligence having been an agent of the security branch of the apartheid regime. The man simply had no taste for democratic ethos. He represented a total opposite of what a democratic society stands for.
Under Ntlemeza’s watch, the Hawks were used to further both political and personal agendas. Instead of investigating shady dealings of the Guptas he was preoccupied with persecuting former MK members and communists. He went as far as blatantly refusing to investigate the tapping of phones of Communist Party leaders. He stifled the Nkandla investigations. He made documents disappear in the alleged Pravin Ghordan case of a “rogue unit”; he stifled investigations in both PRASA and Eskom deals, etc.