Crime Intelligence top brass without clearance

Attached please find a sound bite in English.
The presentation delivered by the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Intelligence (CI) Division to Parliament’s Police Portfolio Committee yesterday has shockingly revealed that almost three quarters of rank-and-file CI division employees still do not have security clearance.
Some of the findings showed that:
• 3 SAPS Generals were denied security clearance and the clearance of a further 12 has expired;
• 125 SAPS Generals and Brigadiers failed to apply for security clearance;
• The clearance of more than 1 300 CI employees has expired while a further 85 were denied security clearance; and
• 6130 CI members have no clearance at all.
CI has clearly jumped straight out of the heat of the Mdluli frying pan and into the flames of the Ncobo fire. The DA is still awaiting the answer to our question on allegations that Richard Mdluli’s son, Captain Owen Mdluli, still controls interceptions within CI.
This provides a harrowing reflection of the systemic failure in leadership of the Police and CI in the country. It speaks to the deep divisions within the R3.54-billion CI division, highlighted by the fact that a member who is being charged with fraudulently fabricating fake security clearance documents, was about to be sent on a freebie trip to Paris.
If Police Minister, Fikile Mbalula, does not tackle this crisis head on, South Africans will never feel safe in their homes and on the streets.
As officer after officer dies on the beat, and brazen criminals bomb ATMs, hijack CIT vans and rip our citizenry apart, the need for the SAPS to be professionalised could not be more dire.

DA to refer ‘Project Wonder’ to the Inspector-General of Intelligence for investigation

The DA notes with concern the revelation of continued interference in police operations by suspended heads of SAPS, Crime Intelligence and Hawks through an alleged clandestine intelligence operation called ‘Project Wonder’.
The reported participation of operatives in these agencies in this project, specifically the illegal monitoring of Cabinet Ministers and their support staff, diverts attention away from the real task of fighting crime and shows how the chickens are coming home to roost after years of political interference and capture of the police service.
The DA will therefore refer this alleged unlawful interference and acts of intimidation to the Inspector General of Intelligence (IGI) for possible investigation.
Berning Ntlemeza, Richard Mdluli and Khomotso Phahlane are currently on suspension for various alleged offences committed during their tenure, which means they could face further sanction should it be established that they are the ringleaders of ‘Project Wonder’.
In addition to the referral of the issue to the IGI, the DA will also write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police to summon Major-General Ngcobo, as the Acting Head of Crime Intelligence (CI), to come and brief Parliament on what his Division will do to clamp down on rogue CI officers who are suspected of participating in ‘Project Wonder’.
We cannot allow stability in our state security institutions to be corrupted by a mafia of rogue elements whose objective has mutated from fighting organised crime to conducting illegal witch-hunts to promote narrow agendas.
Confidence in state security sector is already at an all-time low. It is therefore unacceptable that there are sustained efforts to promote further destabilisation and abuse of state resources.
Organised violent crime in the country is at an all-time high and has been escalating continuously for years, therefore it is important that SAPS and its crime intelligence structures are focused on fulfilling their core objective of fighting crime. Any unrelated undertakings is a betrayal to South Africans who are forced to live their lives in fear because of organised crimes like robberies, hijackings and human trafficking.
The DA looks forward to the initiation of an investigation by the IGI into ‘Project Wonder’. Those implicated must face the full might of the law.
It is abundantly clear that the only way to ensure that sanity and stability is restored in our state security sector is to remove this corruption-ridden ANC government which has bred such lawlessness. In its place we must have a DA-led national government elected that will put the fight against crime firmly back on the agenda under fit-for-purpose leadership whose integrity is beyond reproach.