Police minister Senzo Mchunu has told parliament that the inspector-general of intelligence has begun probing the dodgy procurement of two properties in Durban and Pretoria the value of which are said to have been inflated to more than R50m.
Mchunu disclosed this to MPs on Wednesday as part of his participation in a Q&A session between legislators and ministers in the peace and security cluster.
He was responding to a question from DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard, who wanted to know the reasons for the purchase of the property in Berea at R22.8m whereas it had been listed at R9.5m.
In January, it also emerged that the SAPS crime intelligence splurged another R22.7m on a 24-room boutique hotel in Pretoria North at an apparently inflated price.
The DA MP had also asked Mchunu how disclosing reasons related the questionable property acquisitions would be a risk to state security.
Mchunu would only say the controversial sales in Pretoria and Durban were now part of a probe by the spooks’ watchdog body, the IGI, and a report would be presented to parliament via the joint standing committee on intelligence, which meets behind closed door.
“We would love when this matter gets completed in terms of the investigation, that the report goes to the JSCI for processing as opposed to giving the answers here and now, so we are requesting that we process those matters accordingly,” said Mchunu.
“But the main thing is that it’s a matter under investigation and will be completed in due course.”
But Kohler-Barnard alleged that senior SAPS officials who dealt with the sale of the Pretoria property pocketed “multimillion-rand” inducements.
“It’s now a matter of public record, the secrecy ship has sailed on a sea of front pages,” she said.
“Claims have been made that the three signatories of that purchase received huge multimillion-rand payments as a results of the sale. Were similar payments made in the Durban purchase, given that they paid R22m for a R9.5m building? It’s as though we have never left the Mdluli years behind, and the looting set out by the Zondo commission has not stopped.”
Mchunu said Kohler-Barnard’s concerns would be addressed “at the appropriate time”.
The police minister also faced questions about whether the family members of former deputy commissioner of crime intelligence Richard Mdluli, who left the SAPS in disgrace several years ago, were still “in active service” of SAPS.
The question came from DA MP Ian Cameron, the chairperson of parliament’s police committee, who said he had information that some of Mdluli’s family members remained in the employ of SAPS despite their “nepotistic hiring”.
Mchunu said these and other governance issues were under investigation by different law enforcement agencies such as the Hawks, the IGI and the Independent Directorate within the context of the Zondo commission’s recommendations.
On a separate matter, parliament heard it was highly unlikely that Taiwan’s diplomatic offices would relocate from Pretoria to Johannesburg or elsewhere by the cabinet-set deadline of end-March 2025.
This is according to deputy minister of international relations and co-operations Alvin Botes, who was responding to questions on the matter in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
Botes said government has warned the leaders of the Taipei Liaison Office (TLO) to stop sending “distorted missives” to Washington over the dragging diplomatic row between Pretoria and Taipei.
“We have engaged the TLO, madam chair, and they have cited administrative and logistical difficulties to conform to the deadline that South Africa has outlined.
“We are seized with engaging the TLO and its leaders in terms of the imperative to subscribe to the decision of the government of South Africa.
“We have also highlighted the fact that we expect to have consistent engagement with the department of international relations, as opposed to where they are sending distorted missives, to senators and House of Representatives in Washington DC, where they are problematising the political decisions of the South African government.”
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