President and Police Minister Miss Deadline on IPID Parliamentary Questions Relating to Phala Phala

President Ramaphosa and his Acting Police Minister, Prof Firoz Cachalia, have both missed deadlines to respond to written parliamentary questions from ActionSA seeking clarity on what consequence management, if any, they have been taken arising from the IPID investigation from October 2023.

After a lengthy legal battle, ActionSA secured the IPID investigation into Phala Phala and made it public to the South African people. It detailed serious findings against the Presidential Protection Unit as well as the President’s Special Envoy to Africa, Dr Bhekani Chauke.

Following the receipt and publication of this report, ActionSA submitted parliamentary questions to both the President and the Minister. Both have now failed to respond within the stipulated timeframe. Accordingly, they are both operating in contravention of the rules of the National Assembly.

To remind South Africans, the report found that the Head of the Presidential Protection Unit, Major General Wally Rhoode, and fellow PPU member, Constable HH Rekhoto:

1. Refused to participate in the IPID investigation despite serving as members of the South African Police Service.
2. Involved themselves in an unlawful investigation without opening a docket or reporting their involvement to the direct reporting line to the National Police Commissioner.
3. Falsified documents to ensure the investigation was funded by the South African Police Service under false pretences of the work of the Presidential Protection Unit members.
4. Incurred irregular expenditure to fly drivers from Pretoria to assist in the investigation in Cape Town despite such human resources being available in Cape Town.
5. Used the name of the President through the investigation to bully members of law enforcement to complying with requests that were irregular.
6. Interrogated suspects without reading them their rights as prescribed in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
7. Facilitated an unauthorised meeting with officials of the Namibian government, in no man’s land near Upington, and unlawfully included Dr Bhejani Chauke, the Presidential Envoy for Africa.

Most importantly, the fact that the President’s Envoy to Africa was involved in these findings reveals more than the actions of a rogue PPU member, and points to a conspiracy supported in the Presidency.

The fact that the President and Cachalia have both missed these deadlines the day after his address to the nation in which he wrapped himself in the rule of law just demonstrates the insincerity of his address.

The President has never acted openly and transparently in relation to the IPID investigation, and in all likelihood, these unlawful actions taken in his name were taken with his implicit or explicit endorsement. This is why no actions have been taken in relation to the IPID investigation in nearly three years.

ActionSA will be writing to the Speaker of the National Assembly and demanding that her office holds both the President and the Acting Police Minister to account to the rules of the National Assembly in relation to these parliamentary questions.

The simple truth is that ActionSA has received no response to these questions, because the President and his Acting Police Minister do not have any answers to the question of what consequences have flowed from the IPID investigation into Phala Phala. ActionSA will pursue this answer until it is officially given, so that the South African people, and the Impeachment Committee, can be afforded these facts.

ActionSA Gauteng Powerhouse: Focused initially on Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, and Tshwane.