By Anita Dangazele
- KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and Crime Intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo went to Brooklyn Police Station on Thursday after IDAC summoned them.
- Khumalo’s lawyer James Ndebele says IDAC played games with his client, leaving them waiting at the police station at great personal expense.
IDAC had arrest warrants ready. Then senior officials inside the directorate told their own investigators to stand down.
That is the account from the legal team of Crime Intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo, who arrived at Brooklyn Police Station on Thursday alongside KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi after being summoned by the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate Against Corruption.
When they arrived, investigators told them that senior IDAC officials had instructed them not to carry out the warrants.
Khumalo’s lawyer, James Ndebele, said his client had been treated poorly.
“It’s embarrassing for my clients to be out at great expense to have an attorney go to the police station with them, only for IDAC not to pitch,” Ndebele said.
Mkhwanazi said he first heard through a friend that IDAC was planning to arrest him. He did not take it seriously until Khumalo was also told to present himself.
The commissioner said he is not claiming to be above the law.
“We are not saying we are immune from being investigated. If there are things we did wrong, then by all means. But if there’s a warrant of arrest, arrest the person,” he said.
Mkhwanazi is now demanding answers. He says IDAC must explain why it summoned them and then failed to act on its own warrants.
It is not clear what the investigation is about or who specifically gave the order to hold the warrants.
IDAC issued a brief statement confirming that Khumalo had not been arrested. It did not address the warrants or the stand-down instruction.
Mkhwanazi has suggested the summons may be connected to a separate investigation SAPS has been running into three IDAC officials. IDAC has not responded to that claim.
Pictured above: KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Image source: SAPS
