Lt-Gen Tebello Mosikili says perjury charges against her stemming from a theft case she opened after her cellphone, bank cards, official access cards and R10,000 were stolen have no basis.
According to Mosikili, the deputy national commissioner for policing, the items were stolen while she was near Makro in Centurion in July 2024.
She told the parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating criminality in the criminal justice system that investigators told her they were investigating a criminal complaint of perjury against her in connection with a case she had opened.
The ad hoc committee was established to investigate allegations made by Lt-Gen Nhanhla Mkhwanazi that criminal syndicates had infiltrated the criminal justice system.
Testifying on Tuesday, Mosikili said the investigators claimed that the three statements she made under oath were contradictory and that she had perjured herself.
She did not know where she had perjured herself, she said, adding she was not given particulars of the alleged contradictions.
She added that the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) investigators did not inform her who the complainant was, nor when the complaint was lodged.
She was told only that the investigation had been initiated by the executive director of Ipid.
“I have also not been furnished with any documentation in support of the alleged complaint for perjury.
“However, I am the complainant in the principal matter of the theft, which has not yet been finalised to my knowledge. I must also hasten to mention that I am interested in ensuring that the criminal complaint relating to the theft is finalised in the interest of justice,” she said.
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Mosikili said her criminal complaint was pending and the fact that Ipid had embarked on investigating her statements was worrisome.
“This appears to be designed to compromise the integrity and finalisation of that complaint.”
Mosikili said after the theft, she had made a handwritten statement at Lyttleton police station on the same day.
“This statement was handwritten by the police official who took my statement.”
She said at the time she made the statement she was shaken and unnerved by the theft.
Amendments were made in ink on the statement without my knowledge or authority. The amendments were not commissioned in my presence, despite the fact that I am the complainant in the matter.
— Lt-Gen Tebello Mosikili, deputy national commissioner for policing
After opening the case, Mosikili said, she became aware there was a syndicate operating in that area.
She said the copy of the handwritten statement handed to her by the Ipid investigators did not correspond with the first statement she made at Lyttleton police station.
“Amendments were made in ink on the statement without my knowledge or authority. The amendments were not commissioned in my presence, despite the fact that I am the complainant in the matter.
“I also do not know who made the alterations and what was his or her motive to do so. Ipid’s possession of a not-yet-finalised docket is in my view an unprecedented, unlawful and unconstitutional act.
“It is tantamount to unlawful interference with a criminal investigation which is still to be finalised.”
Mosikili added that allegations that the cellphone was traced back to her were not correct.
Sowetan
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