It took the Hawks’ serious organised crime team 10 minutes to verify whether police at the alleged cartel member Katiso “KT” Molefe’s home were impersonating; the process took the unit’s tactical operations management section (Toms) an hour.
Allegations before the Madlanga commission are that there is a group of Hawks officers who interfered with a Gauteng counterintelligence operation that was arresting Molefe at his home on December 6 for his alleged role in the killing of Vaal engineer Armand Swart.
Both Hawks teams arrived at the scene at the same time, the commission heard.
Two members of the serious organised crime team and Maj-Gen Ebrahim Ahmed Kadwa denied interference. They told the commission on the said date that Kadwa received information from the unit’s former head, Gen Godfrey Lebeya, that people were impersonating Hawks officials at Molefe’s home.
The two officials, Capt Christaan Nortjie and Paul Makhere, told the commission that upon arrival they saw signs that it was a legitimate police operation and, within 10 minutes, they had already left Molefe’s home.
Maj Kadwa said in hindsight, he should have enquired from Lebeya how he verified that people were impersonating the Hawks.
“When I received an instruction from the national head, I normally accept his bona fides as my superior and that instruction being given as a legitimate purpose.
“So had I been approached by a member of a lower rank or a member of the public directly, I would have adopted a different approach, where would basically have done some due diligence in terms of obtaining the details of the person, why they are basically making these [types] of claims and then depending on the situation, depending on who’s calling, it can either be myself or I could then send a delegate,” he said.
The commission has previously heard that the Hawks Toms team established a WhatsApp group, sourced a helicopter from the traffic department and upon arrival, requested the J50 warrant to verify whether the police at Molefe’s were legitimate.
Evidence in the form of WhatsApp text messages shows that 10 minutes before they arrived at Molefe’s home, they had already received information that the police at Molefe were legitimate and were there under the instruction of head of crime intelligence Gen Dumisani Khumalo.
Their senior, Brig Lesiba Mokoena, kept on calling to check for their update on how far they were from Molefe’s home, the commission heard.
Mokoena has since denied mobilising a team to go to Molefe’s house and WhatsApp messages show that it took him an hour to order the withdrawal of the team.
He said he only told Cpt Barry Kruger and WO Sabelo Nkosi to go and verify and refused to participate in the group that mobilised other police officers.
Witness A, an investigator, had previously told the commission that the arrival of the Hawks and the helicopter at Molefe’s home was intimidating, to the point that he had to call his commanders to ask for protection.
Chairperson of the commission, justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, has expressed his wish to hear from Lebeya.
“Do we still want to hear anything about what all these officers want to say? The only person we should hear from is Gen Lebeya now.
“Haven’t we heard enough from the officers?” he asked.
Sowetan
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