Judge dismisses police secret document appeal
National Police Commissioner General Khehla Sithole and two other SAPS senior officials have lost their application for leave to appeal against an earlier judgment regarding the declassification of documents.
A Pretoria News report notes in January, Judge Norman Davis ordered the police to hand over several secret documents to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) for the purpose of investigating suspected tender fraud and corruption within police ranks.
The investigation pertains to the R45m ‘Nasrec grabber’ issue.
But Sithole, as well as Francinah Vuma and Lebeona Tshumane, both lieutenant-generals, said the court erred in finding that they had breached their duties by failing to furnish Ipid with information and documents relating to their investigation into the alleged fraud and corruption.
The three top SAPS brass turned to court for leave to appeal against Davis’ judgment.
The result is that Ipid still has not received the documents to enable them to start the investigation.
While Davis earlier overturned the subpoenas which initially compelled the three to hand over the documents, he still ordered that the documents be declassified for the purposes of Ipid’s investigations and any subsequent prosecutions.
Sithole and the other applicants now said as the judge had overturned the subpoenas, there was no duty on them to furnish the required documents. They insisted that the documents in question needed to first be ‘declassified’, and that this should be done via a request to the chairperson of Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.
But, according to the Pretoria News report, the judge said this argument was legally unsound.
In turning down their application for leave to appeal, he said they did not produce any copies of documents.
‘They did not furnish Ipid with any information, clearly within their knowledge, of any aspect of the matters under investigation, nor did they assist Ipid in any manner or fashion. In fact, when requested to make themselves available for interviews, rather than comply with their statutory duties as police officers willing to contribute to the investigation of crimes, they sought legal assistance, and on this basis thwarted Ipid’s investigation,’ the judge said.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
