POLICE Minister Bheki Cele has been advised to look into the conduct of the head of the country's elite crime-busting unit the Hawks over “his conduct” leading up to the murder of Lieutenant-General Charl Kinnear.
The Sunday Independent has seen a top-secret Independent Police Investigative Directorate report which recommends that Cele look into the conduct of Hawks head Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya before Kinnear was assassinated in Cape Town.
The explosive report – which will remain classified for now, as it implicates senior police officers – says Cele must consider whether Lebeya’s conduct was in line with the SAPS Act.
The report by the police watchdog also adds that Lebeya “failed to ensure that the (Hawks) members implicated investigated the threat against the state, and therefore failed to protect the national interest or security of the state”.
The DA said Cele had failed to implement the Ipid recommendations, as he was allegedly trying to protect the officers implicated. The DA’s shadow minister of police, Andrew Whitfield, said Cele had to account for the inaction by the police and had to appear before the police portfolio committee to explain why he hadn’t yet implemented Ipid’s recommendations.
“The SAPS’s blatant disregard for the Ipid Act, especially in such a high-profile matter involving the assassination of one of its own members, highlights the impunity with which the SAPS continues to operate, and gives credence to claims that the SAPS in the Western Cape has been captured by gangs,” Whitfield added.
Kinnear was assassinated outside his home in Bishop Lavis on September 18, 2020 while investigating an alleged gun syndicate involving gang bosses and high-ranking officers.
High-ranking police officers were allegedly selling guns confiscated at various crime scenes to Western Cape gangs, and those firearms were used to kill and commit other crimes. Kinnear was shot multiple times in his upper body. Before his death, he had complained that he was getting death threats, and that his phone had been pinged 2 116 times.
The report states two Hawks bosses in Gauteng, including Lebeya, were supposed to investigate who was pinging Kinnear’s phone, but failed to do so. Kinnear’s protection at his house was also removed.
The report states that a senior officer, known by Independent Media, was “entirely responsible for the withdrawal of the late Colonel Kinnear’s protection”.
He resigned from the SAPS last November, before any of the Ipid recommendations had been implemented.
The senior officer is not the only officer implicated in the report who has so far resigned from the SAPS. Two brigadiers implicated in the Ipid report also resigned before any action was taken against them.
The report implicates several police officers, from sergeants to generals, within the police.
Ipid executive director Jennifer Ntlatseng told Parliament's portfolio committee on police that the report was classified because the investigation implicated senior people.
“We’ve sent the report to the National Prosecuting Authority so they can consider our recommendations. We’ve sent the report to the national commissioner on recommendations, but we have not yet received any response from them to say how far they are with the process,” Ntlaseng said.
Cape Town underworld boss Nafiz Modack, former rugby player Zane Kilian, who is believed to be the main person who pinged Kinnear’s phone, and two others were arrested and charged with the murder of and conspiracy to murder Kinnear.
Cele this week failed to answer specific questions about the report, as well as why he has so far failed to implement any of its recommendations, including looking into Lebeya’s conduct.
Cele's spokesperson, Lirhandzu Themba, said the “report is before the portfolio committee on police, and Minister Cele will not be making any comments until he addresses the portfolio committee on this report”.