ANC Western Cape press release on the ongoing attacks on Police General Jeremy Vearey

28 April 2016

The ANC notes with extreme concern the ongoing attacks against former Umkhonto we Sizwe cadre and senior Commissioned Police Officer, General Jeremy Vearey.

Over recent weeks, Western Cape Safety MEC, Dan Plato has taken the illegal step of publicizing untested and unsubstantiated allegations via the media which is not only an attack on the ANC but also an attack on General Vearey and the Police Service whose members are being killed on a daily basis.  

The ANC notes that Plato has not followed due process by allowing the allegations to be thoroughly investigated first by the competent authorities given that he has no control or even mandate over the Police Service nor the Justice Department. It is also irresponsible for Plato to repeat the contents of untested Affidavits amounting to fabricated slander at press briefings given that the process of natural investigation has not been taken through its logical course.

The ANC also notes that not only has Plato violated the rights of General Vearey by spewing forth  vague and embarrassing untruths about him in public, but he has also violated the confidentiality of those who use him to peddle their agenda’s; no matter how untrue they may be. The danger is that Plato sets himself up, by his own misfortune, for citizens to mistrust him in future for fear of their identity being revealed to suit the DA’s own narrow minded political agenda.

Dan Plato has become a master of engineering perception around something that has not been tested and, in this way; he maliciously pre-empts the investigative due process that is meant to operate in a normal democratic dispensation.

The ANC also notes that the office of the so-called Police Ombudsman in the Western Cape has been compromised by Plato’s antics in that an unauthorised date stamp utilised by Vusi Pikoli’s colleague, Advocate Jerome Norris was used in Plato’s office to authenticate an illegal Affidavit.      

The timeline preceding these latest events point to a systematic pattern of attack on General Vearey and, by implication, the ANC.    

In approximately 2000, Vearey was illegally suspended by Lennit Max, then Provincial Commissioner and now a DA Member of the Provincial Legislature, as he exposed wholesale corruption in the old Gang Unit. To this day, the fate of the 1 500 dockets that Vearey intercepted in order to prove blatant corruption and gross negligence remains unknown.

Then in 2007, Helen Zille accused Premier Ebrahim Rasool of having appointed General Vearey as the Station Commissioner of Mitchells Plain. As any lucid politician should know, the ranks of all Senior Officers are commissioned by the Commander-In-Chief, i.e. the President.   

Then, on 26 September 2011, DA Mayco member JP Smith, accused General Vearey of “inefficiency and incompetence” and of “ordering SAPS members to steal state property” in an email to Dan Plato. Once again, none of these vague and hysterical allegations were ever substantiated either in open Court or the public domain.

Then followed untested allegations about Jeffrey Franciscus by Plato himself, and following his death in 2012; it has now come to light that Franciscus was not party to any allegations against the ANC but had, instead, refused to implicate General Vearey in exchange for a tender from the DA administration.

General Vearey also initiated an investigation into the DA administration in the City and its alleged payments to members of the Hard Livings Gang for guarding State property in Manenberg. DA Mayco member, JP Smith knew about the alleged payments but did not notify the authorities as required by POCA (Prevention Of Organised Crime Act).

 Vearey’s Operation Combat unit also played a major role in the arrest of Ralph Stanfield and two others on charges relating to an illegal gun licencing racket. Police are currently investigating whether there is any link; political or otherwise, to these bogus licences and the upsurge in gang violence on the Cape Flats. Vearey’s investigation also led to the arrest of a former cop and a certain arms dealer where it has been alleged that guns linked to these two have surfaced in current gang “hot spot” areas like Manenberg, Hanover Park, Belhar, Elsies River and Lavender Hill.

General Vearey, along with dedicated members of the police service, have also over many years arrested and convicted several high flyers including Colin Stansfield, Rashied Staggie and Mallick Pietersen, These convictions, including the locking up of entire gang leadership structures like the Fancy Boys from Atlantis and the Junior Cisco Yakkies have made a considerable dent in the gang hierarchy which, bizarrely, now coincides with the unprecedented public attacks on Vearey by Dan Plato and the DA. The significance of these arrests is that the gun supply line to gangs on the Cape Flats has been cut for the first time which has never been achieved prior to 1994. This salient fact appears to have been lost on both Plato and the DA.   

By spreading vexatious lies, Dan Plato's incompetence has also resulted in certain gangsters placing a "hit" on an innocent General Vearey whose life is now in danger as he is forced to rely on bodyguards while still carrying out his duties as a Commissioned Police Officer.

The ANC salutes all those who contributed to eradicating our country from the chains of apartheid.

The ANC salutes all Umkhonto we Sizwe cadres and in particular its Senior Commissioned Officers in the Western Cape; Andre Lincoln, Peter Jacobs and Jeremy Vearey for going the extra mile in making a difference, with their colleagues; to the lives of our people still living in extreme poverty in our city and province.

The ANC will use all the means at its disposal, including a class action suit, to protect the victims of gangsterism and drugs from corrupt politicians who seek to ensure that our people continue to live in complete squalor as was the case under the illegitimate apartheid regime.

The Argus and journalist Caryn Dolley in particular must be commended for exposing Dan Plato and his devious agenda as he himself confirmed having met with these peddlers of information, in the presence of the media, in his office where General Jeremy Vearey was the topic of discussion.

Dan Plato's actions are nothing short of sedition, i.e. - an attack on General Jeremy Vearey, the Police Service and the State.

Having just celebrated 22 years of our hard fought democracy, here in the Western Cape enclave, we face a new struggle against the politics of Organised Crime.

Issued by Faiez Jacobs, Provincial Secretary, ANC Western Cape, 28 April 2016