SIU must investigate Presidential Protection Head for alleged kickbacks

Reports today have revealed that the Head of the Presidential Protection Service (PPS), Major-General Muzingaye Mxolisi Dladla, allegedly received as much as R700 000 in kickbacks from Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (ITLE) towards buying a R3.2 million house in the Blue Valley Golf Estate in Midrand, Gauteng.

The DA will therefore write to Police Minister, Fikile Mbalula, to request that he refer the matter to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) for investigation.

ITLE is an emergency lights and related products supplier to the PPS in the South African Police Services (SAPS). The PPS has reportedly had ITLE as a major client in the past.

It seems highly likely that the contract was irregularly awarded to ITLE and that Dladla is corrupt like the man he is mandated to protect.

Dladla’s past seems littered with corruption. Reports have revealed that he seems to have lived in a property owned by a Gupta-linked firm and had tickets to the Maldives bought for him by another Gupta-linked firm.

Corruption is the enemy of good governance and undermines the effectiveness of the police service by contributing to the under-resourcing and under-staffing of police stations which makes them unable to ensure safe homes and streets in our communities. The corrupt rot within the ANC government is being shown to have spread its tentacles to all areas, including the PPS.

The PPS should be fulfilling its mandate to protect the President of the Republic, and not used as a channel for corruption, self-enrichment and for public money to be flagrantly wasted on being misused by its own members for financial self-interest. The Police Ministry in a DA-led national government would have zero tolerance for such unethical irregularities and take swift action to bring rotten apples in the police to book.

Mbalula needs do the right thing by referring this issue to the SIU and not shield fellow Zuma loyalists such as Dladla from accountability.

Statement issued by Zakhele Mbhele MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, 28 July 2017