Crime Intelligence top brass without clearance

Note to editors: Attached please find a sound bite in English.

The presentation delivered by the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Intelligence (CI) Division to Parliament’s Police Portfolio Committee yesterday has shockingly revealed that almost three quarters of rank-and-file CI division employees still do not have security clearance.

Some of the findings showed that:

- 3 SAPS Generals were denied security clearance and the clearance of a further 12 has expired;

- 125 SAPS Generals and Brigadiers failed to apply for security clearance;

- The clearance of more than 1 300 CI employees has expired while a further 85 were denied security clearance; and

- 6130 CI members have no clearance at all.

CI has clearly jumped straight out of the heat of the Mdluli frying pan and into the flames of the Ncobo fire. The DA is still awaiting the answer to our question on allegations that Richard Mdluli’s son, Captain Owen Mdluli, still controls interceptions within CI.

This provides a harrowing reflection of the systemic failure in leadership of the Police and CI in the country. It speaks to the deep divisions within the R3.54-billion CI division, highlighted by the fact that a member who is being charged with fraudulently fabricating fake security clearance documents, was about to be sent on a freebie trip to Paris.

If Police Minister, Fikile Mbalula, does not tackle this crisis head on, South Africans will never feel safe in their homes and on the streets.

As officer after officer dies on the beat, and brazen criminals bomb ATMs, hijack CIT vans and rip our citizenry apart, the need for the SAPS to be professionalised could not be more dire.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Police, 16 November 2017