D-Day for Bheki Cele

Police chief expected to be suspended this week

National police commissioner General Bheki Cele is expected to be handed a final letter of suspension this week.

President Jacob Zuma is acting against the country's top cop a year after the Sunday Times first exposed two dodgy police lease deals worth R1.7-billion.

Zuma's office confirmed this week that Cele was served with a notice of the "intention to suspend" him on August 29 for his role in lease deals. Cele's lawyers have already filed detailed responses.

Zuma is expected to return from a state visit to the US today and is set to sign a final letter suspending Cele this week, according to two senior government sources.

This comes as Zuma's spokesman, Mac Maharaj, admitted that the scandal could affect the rank and file of South Africa's crime fighters.

"This has the potential for causing some uncertainty in the police force, and that's not good [in the fight against crime]," he said.

Zuma also informed Cele of his intention to launch a board of inquiry under the Police Act. Maharaj said details of this would emerge in coming days.

The Sunday Times has been told that Zuma has already consulted with key government ministers to gauge their views.

It is understood that they also voiced their lack of confidence in the top cop. Under the Police Act, this is a necessary step for such an inquiry.

Tensions were further heightened this week after crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli was arrested on fraud charges, adding to a murder charge he was arrested on in March.

Mdluli broke his silence this week and told the Sunday Times the charges were fabricated to prevent him from exposing corruption in the top ranks of the police.

Cele signed a letter on August 20 asking Mdluli to explain why he should not be fired, because it was "untenable and works against the interests of the [police service]" for him to remain.

"Why is the national commissioner finding me guilty before the matter is heard in court? I want to go back to my office and do my job," said Mdluli.

Ironically, it was just nine days later that Cele received a similar letter - from Zuma.

Cele's spokesman, Nonkululeko Mbatha, said that Cele had "responded comprehensively" to Zuma.

Zuma's move is the first concrete action taken since public protector Thuli Madonsela released a report in July concluding that Cele and the Minister of Public Works, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, were guilty of "unlawful, improper conduct and maladministration".

Madonsela recommended that "urgent action" be taken against both.

In particular, Madonsela found Mahlangu-Nkabinde guilty of "improper conduct" for failing to act on two independent legal opinions declaring the dodgy leases unlawful.

Zuma's move is also likely to boost his political capital, a week after he launched a commission of inquiry into the arms deal.

Last August, the Sunday Times revealed that Cele had signed off on a key document which was instrumental in ensuring that businessman Roux Shabangu got a R614-million deal to lease the Sanlam Middestad building in Pretoria to the police as its new head-quarters.

It soon emerged Cele had tried to ensure that Shabangu made a second deal, worth R1.16-billion, to lease a building he had bought in Durban.

Neither went out to tender, as required by Treasury rules, while a paper trail and interviews with police generals verified Cele had intervened to ensure Shabangu won the contracts at vastly inflated rentals.

Memos seen by the Sunday Times show Cele had first identified the buildings, authorised rental funding and then adjusted the needs analyses to retrofit their specifications.

Though Cele denied any improper relationship with Shabangu, former police procurement boss Lieutenant-General Hamilton Hlela told the Sunday Times that top generals believed there was "something fishy" about the way Cele manipulated the process.

"General Cele personally instructed me at a hotel parking lot in Boksburg, on March 24 [2010], to move the police top brass to Middestad building, owned by Shabangu," he said.

Now pressure is mounting for Zuma to tackle Mahlangu-Nkabinde.

Her predecessor, Geoff Doidge, put the lease deals on ice. Zuma replaced him with Mahlangu-Nkabinde in October 2010 and she promptly reinstated the leases, despite the two legal opinions stating that doing so would be illegal.

This week, she launched a fierce public relations exercise aimed at saving her career, appearing on several radio shows to protest her innocence and to announce that she had filed court papers to have the leases declared invalid.

Maharaj said that Zuma had "lots of correspondence" from Mahlangu-Nkabinde over the police leases, but had not served any suspension letter on her.

Maharaj said Madonsela's report made it clear that the leases were invalid.

"Now we must make sure that invalidity is enforced in law. The president cannot ignore the fact that she's taken the step [of approaching court to have the lease deals declared invalid]," he said.

Mahlangu-Nkabinde's spokes-man, Sam Mkhwanazi, referred all questions about Zuma's possible actions against her to Maharaj.

investigations@sundaytimes.co.za