By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: Storm Simpson.
The former head of Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), Robert McBride, concluded his two day testimony before the parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating police corruption.
The ad hoc committee is looking into accusations that KZN commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi made that a drug cartel has infiltrated South Africa’s criminal justice system, politics and private security.
McBride’s testimony underscored the rifts between various senior state law enforcement figures. His previous positions included Ekurhuleni Metro Police chief and Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) head.
Central to Wednesday’s proceedings was McBride’s relationship with the controversial private forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan.
McBride told the committee that he has known O’Sullivan since 2014, when he became Ipid’s executive director.
“For me, he was a sounding board with information that he had. I would listen to what he said,” McBride added.
When asked whether O’Sullivan attempted to exert influence over Ipid and the South African Police Service (Saps), McBride said he believed the investigator overstepped only twice.
“I brought him to order. I don’t know his relationship with Saps.”
McBride said he was no stranger to such accusations, noting that “all kinds of scurrilous smears” had been made against him in the past.
“I have very few friends, but associations I have with people who add some value to my life and what I do.”
“So in all humility, whatever this committee feels won’t change my normal activities during my private life.”
ActionSA’s Dereleen James put it to McBride that he previously had a romantic relationship with an associate of O’Sullivan, whose name has repeatedly surfaced throughout the proceedings as someone meddling in policing matters. McBride denied it.
James had also grilled him on his proximity to O’Sullivan, saying: “You’ve rolled out the red carpet to O’Sullivan and all his cronies.”
Among the many issues and people McBride testified about was former Hawks head Anwa Dramat, who was suspended from that position and whom McBride said had been targeted for political reasons.
He specified that Dramat had okayed an investigation into the use of the secret service funds at Crime Intelligence that had been earmarked for “renovations at the former president Jacob Zuma’s house.
McBride explained that renovations to improve security were known to take place at the homes of heads of state and senior ministers.
The Department of Public Works would normally fund such upgrades, not any secret service fund.
McBride said neither he nor Dramat were involved in the investigation into the renovations, and it was Parliament that had taken this over.
Earlier on Wednesday, the MK party’s Sibonelo Nomvalo asked McBride whether he had ever been arrested.
McBride said he had once, because of “activities on behalf of the liberation movement” – this would appear to relate to the 1986 bombing of Magoo’s Bar in Durban.
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report explained that “three people were killed and about 69 injured in a car bomb explosion at Magoo’s Bar” and that McBride, then a member of the ANC’s armed wing Umkhonto weSizwe, was part of a cell behind the incident.
The final report said that the ANC had submitted to the commission that the bombing was “in line with the ANC’s attempts to take the struggle out of the black ghettos and into the white areas”, and the target had actually been another bar frequented by off-duty apartheid security branch members.
Referring to his other arrests, McBride said that in 2006, he was detained on a drunk driving allegation, over which he was found not guilty.
The ad hoc committee is expected to resume on Thursday, when suspended Ekurhuleni Metro Police chief Julius Mkhwanazi is expected to testify.