Police Minister Bheki Cele has been accused of putting the life of policing expert Mary de Haas in danger. Picture: Jacoline Schoonees
VETERAN violence monitor Mary de Haas has accused Police Minister Bheki Cele of putting her life in danger after she was told by a source within the SA Police Service (SAPS) that Cele had said that she was out to destroy him.
De Haas has complained to Parliament Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula about this “inflammatory rhetoric”. She has also sent a letter to the Portfolio Committee on Police.
According to de Haas, Cele made the statement after she exposed him for illegal and unconstitutional conduct by allegedly covering-up for politicians implicated in criminal activity.
“I am putting on record, publicly with Parliament, that I believe if what I am told by police members is correct, Minister Cele is endangering my personal safety,” said de Haas.
Cele’s spokesperson, Lirandzu Themba, responded to de Haas’s allegation with a “no comment, thanks”. Asked if parliament had received her letter, spokesperson Moloto Mothapo did not respond.
De Haas continued: “Several weeks ago, there were reports that Minister Cele had been telling police members that they should not give information to the media and academics (some thought he was referring to me because I speak about SAPS corruption and misconduct and am known to have many police contacts).
“However, I have now been told by a source I know to be credible that the Minister has told police members that I, Mary de Haas, am out to destroy him.
“Whatever he means by that, it is inflammatory rhetoric,” she said.
De Haas further said that through her work with individuals, communities, and police members, she heard about systemic police corruption, which also put the lives of good police members at risk.
“Having done this work for so long, it has become obvious to me how, since around 2009, levels of accountability and transparency – as demanded by the Constitution – hardly exist now. I have thus tried to get Parliament to demand this accountability from the executive members in terms of its constitutional oversight role, as your committee knows.”
De Haas said the lives of former police and whistleblower Patricia Mashale, who stands for the rights of police members, and anti-corruption campaigner and whistleblower Thabiso Zulu, remained in great danger, forcing them to remain in hiding and watch their movements very closely, despite all her interventions to the committee.
“SAPS crime intelligence has lurched from bad (in July 2021) to worse (in 2023) and the crisis drawn to your attention - most recently in my 27 October 2023 communication - remains, with deep divisions between professional intelligence staff and those who are, to put it bluntly, taking political instructions to serve party ends.
“Nor, it seems, has any constructive action been taken by your committee to stop this grossly irregular (in terms of legislation, including the SAPS act), and sinister, control by the Minister, of the political killings team, which from some cases I have followed closely, probably exists to cover for favoured politicians implicated in criminal activities,” de Haas said.
She added: “It seems that Minister Cele takes exception to my exposing the fact that his conduct is unconstitutional and illegal. Nevertheless, it appears to be tolerated by Parliament and the president. He (and many other politicians) remain in breach of his oath to defend the Constitution.
“He tries to deflect attention by attacking the messenger who is telling people about his illegal actions, and reminding them that he was dismissed in disgrace as police commissioner, but continues to usurp that position itself while the President and parliament allow him to do so.”
De Haas, who has been a researcher monitoring violence and policing for over 30 years, said she had been threatened and harassed over the years, and was told by a very senior police member in the late 1990s that “all my telephones lines were intercepted”.
“Given my unpopularity with the government, I have no doubt that my communications continue to be intercepted and, wherever possible, my movements monitored - which, of course, also puts me in danger.
“Now the Minister, a populist politician, who has many followers in the police, is deliberately whipping them against me.”
His allies in the police include apartheid-era police and agents, some of whom used state funds to order the assassination of Sindiso Magaqa. Some CIS members have been implicated in the attempt to kill Zulu (whom Cele has refused to protect), she said.
“Others have been used, at Cele’s direction, to try and track down Mashale. Cele is also known to have dangerous friends, including the taxi mafia industry in KwaZulu-Natal, which is the main home of hitmen. This is the environment in which I live and move around.”
De Haas previously pleaded with Parliament to urgently look into Cele’s alleged irregular operational involvement, and the way in which police allegedly broke the law with impunity under his leadership.
She also accused Cele of facilitating and being responsible for the surge in violent crime while squandering taxpayers’ money on extravagant travel expenses and irregular expenditure.
She warned parliament that Cele’s actions were a security threat to the country.
Meanwhile, Mashale’s family continues to be threatened and harassed, as a SAPS Crime Intelligence vehicle allegedly kept the family home under surveillance over the weekend. De Haas also told parliament that this needed immediate action.
Sunday Independent
manyane.manyane@inl.co.za
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