Cele 'not going to leave SAPS'

National police commissioner General Bheki Cele is not going to leave the SAPS until his "job is done", he said in an interview with the Sunday Independent.

"I'm going to be here until my job is done. There is work to be done and I am doing it. Let me repeat myself, I'm going to be here until my work is done. I'm not thinking so, I'm telling you so," he was quoted as saying.

He was commenting on speculation that he might resign or be fired by President Jacob Zuma after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found he had a hand in unlawful leases signed for police office space in Pretoria and Durban, together worth R1.7 billion.

"The SAPS hasn't said a word [on the matter] and I haven't said a word and that's how I want to keep it," he said.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj last Monday dismissed reports of Cele's imminent suspension.

"The reports were based on unsourced information. I cannot deal in rumours," Maharaj said in response to a Sunday Times report.

He declined to say whether Zuma had already taken a decision on Cele's fate.

The Sunday Times reported that the president was about to send a final letter of suspension to Cele, seen as a once trusted political ally now fighting for his job, despite success in reducing crime rates.

According to the newspaper he would be barred from office while a board of inquiry investigated his role in the police's R1.7 billion lease deals for new headquarters.