Police minister uses state-funded legal advisor in fight with own ministry.
Minister of Police Bheki Cele has sacked his private attorney and instead is using his state-funded legal advisor to help him fight his own ministry in a private civil matter in which – given his new position – he is also a respondent.
It is no doubt a conundrum for his new legal advisor Advocate Simo Chamane; more so because he denies providing advice to Cele-the-applicant despite court documents stating the contrary. Chamane should only be giving Cele-the-minister advice, as his mandate is to protect the ministry, not fight it. Chamane is faced with a clear conflict of interest – although he doesn’t see it.
Cele, who previously served as national commissioner of SAPS, was appointed Minister of Police in February this year by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Although he has been lauded for his stance towards crime, in 2012 he was certified by the Presidency-commissioned Moloi Commission of Inquiry as “dishonest” and “conflicted” and “not fit to hold office and… unable to execute his official duties efficiently”.
The late Judge Jake Moloi’s findings resulted in Cele’s being fired by former president Jacob Zuma in June 2012. This came after two damning Public Protector reports against Cele titled “Against the Rules” and “Against the Rules Too” which concerned two lease agreements in Pretoria and Durban worth more than R1,7 billion that SAPS wanted to sign with busi nessman Roux Shabangu between March and July 2010.
This story is from the August 2018 edition of Noseweek.
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This story is from the August 2018 edition of Noseweek.
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