The Hawks must root out rogue elements within its ranks – SACP

The South African Communist Party is calling on the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks, to stop emotional pretences and start rooting out rogue elements within its ranks. The evidence presented on Friday, 24 August 2018 by Mcebisi Jonas, former deputy finance minister, directly challenges the Hawks to investigate those within its ranks who were complicit in the networks of corporate capture of key authorities of our state.

It emerged from the evidence, presented to the judicial commission of inquiry into state capture, that a senior member of the Hawks tried to “kill” an investigation into allegations that the Guptas promised Jonas the position of finance minister and bribe him, and that they were working together with Duduzane Zuma, their business partner, the son of former President Jacob Zuma, then the President.

On 17 June 2018 the SACP welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of a high-level review panel to assess the mandate, capacity and organisational integrity of the State Security Agency. The Presidency announced the appointment on 15 June 2018, and said that “the panel must seek to identify all material factors that allowed for some of the current challenges within the Agency so that appropriate measures are instituted to prevent a recurrence.

The main objective of the review panel is to assist in ensuring a responsible and accountable national intelligence capability for the country in line with the Constitution and relevant legislation”. The SACP reiterates its call, that the review must leave no stone unturned. It must help our country to uproot the rot that had taken root in our national intelligence services, including rogue intelligence networks and operations. These were used to isolate and drive smear campaigns against those who stood up against corporate state capture and other forms of corruption.   

In welcoming the establishment of the intelligence review panel, the SACP called for a similar review of the police crime intelligence, the police as a whole – including the Hawks – as well as the prosecution, to establish how on earth the rot of corporate state capture took place as if these authorities were non-existent, and for a firm action to be taken.

The evidence presented by Jonas strengthened the grounds for this call, which the SACP reiterates. It is very clear that the parasitic networks of corporate state capture may probably have been erected also in police and investigative authorities such as the Hawks, leading to state capture related cases being “killed”. The Party will take up the matter with its allies and in forging a widest possible patriotic front in defence of our democratic national sovereignty.

Statement issued by the SACP, 26 August 2018