By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@MoeletsiMabe.
A criminal case was lodged against the national police commissioner on 9 December 2021 under section 33 of the Ipid Act at Pretoria Central Police Station.
IPID says Police Commissioner Khehla Sitole has failed to cooperate with the investigation into the murder of Charl Kinnear.
Sitole has already been found guilty, along with senior colleagues Francinah Vuma and Lebeoana Tsumane, by the Gauteng High Court of breaching the same section of the Ipid Act as well as their duties as SA Police Service officers.
The court found that Sitole and his fellow senior officers had placed the interests of the governing party, the ANC, above those of the citizens of South Africa.
Sitole remains in his position, in spite of threats by President Cyril Ramaphosa to institute an inquiry into his fitness to hold office. He remained in place through heated criticism of police failures during the July 2021 “insurrection” in KZN and Gauteng after Jacob Zuma’s imprisonment.
On 26 January 2022, Ipid Executive Director Jennifer Ntlatseng wrote to Police Minister Bheki Cele, requesting his intervention as Sitole had allegedly in 2021 ducked several attempts by Ipid investigators to interview him.
Sitole had on 22 June 2021 been alerted through the Office of the SAPS Executive Legal Adviser that the Ipid investigators sought to interview him.
In November 2021, Ipid completed a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances leading up to and surrounding Kinnear’s murder outside his home in Bishop Lavis, Cape Town, on 18 September 2020.
The investigation into the fraught circumstances surrounding Kinnear’s murder was prompted by the public outcry that followed. It was clear that the decorated detective had been left vulnerable and exposed by his employer, the SAPS.
Kinnear, who had been working single-handedly on at least 20 cases involving illegal gun licences, corrupt SAPS colleagues and prominent organised crime figures, had in 2018 circulated a 59-page memorandum to his superiors, including Sitole, informing them his life was in danger.
He set out how a rogue Crime Intelligence unit in the Western Cape, consisting of at least six members, had been targeting SAPS colleagues, interfering with investigations and acting criminally by colluding with underworld figures. The unit had targeted Kinnear, Jeremy Vearey, Peter Jacobs and other SAPS members.
The police watchdog recommended serious action be taken against those officials found to have been asleep on the job, who may have colluded with criminals or turned a blind eye to the nightmare faced by a sterling officer serving his country.