Response to Utterances Arising in the Proceedings of the Madlanga Commission

Following the proceedings at the Madlanga Commission, I must clarify that I never received classified documents under the door of my parliamentary office. Anyone who has visited my office in Parliament knows that access to my floor is controlled and my office door is monitored by security cameras. I have no doubt that the CCTV footage will confirm that no such thing ever took place.

The disgraced IDAC investigators were telling a blatant lie when they claimed that I received documents under the door of my parliamentary office. I am requesting SAPS, which is responsible for security in Parliament, to urgently secure and review the CCTV footage monitoring the entrance to my office which will confirm that no one, other than my staff, ever had access to my office. 

On 13 January 2025, after my staff brought a News24 article to my attention concerning the purchase of a hotel by Crime Intelligence, I issued a statement calling on the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to investigate the matter. Based only on the information already in the media about the hotel purchase, I believed IPID, as the lawful body responsible for investigating police misconduct, was the appropriate institution to determine whether any wrongdoing had occurred as the article said.

In the days that followed, I randomly received a weird call from a gentleman who identified himself as being an investigator from the NPA and he requested a meeting and suggested that I allow IDAC to deal with the matter instead of pursuing my call for an IPID investigation. I distinctly recall informing my staff afterwards that I was deeply uncomfortable with both the approach and the suggestions made by the IDAC investigator, which appeared to be an attempt to discourage or redirect my parliamentary oversight and to pursued me to redirect the matter away from IPID to the NPA which immediately raised red flags for me. 

For that reason, I chose not to involve myself in any further engagements as I was not interested in engaging with NPA/IDAC any further. I was simply not prepared to become involved in something that did not sit right with me, particularly as it appeared that my legitimate concerns about the hotel purchase were being dragged into a separate scheme of which I had no knowledge. That was a red line for me and I refused to be part of it. 

I am grateful that I trusted my instincts to stay clear of a clearly dodgy situation despite attempts to drag me into something that did not sit right with me. Looking back, it now makes more sense why some people became very angry with me for refusing to go along with what I believed was suspect.

The criminals and cabals being exposed at the Madlanga Commission were shameless in their efforts to destabilize the fight against organised crime syndicates. As I fought to the best of my ability on the Ad Hoc Committee, I am proud of the work of cleaning up institutions such as IDAC and SAPS by removing those who abuse the criminal justice system to protect criminal interests instead of fighting them.

ActionSA Social Justice: Advocates for “Social Justice” over traditional BEE.