Pretoria – Axed police commissioner Bheki Celeon Wednesday said he would file a complaint with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) against retired judge Jake Moloi. 

“He [Moloi] was very hostile towards me,” Cele told reporters in Pretoria.

“I felt humiliated and abused,” he said referring to the board of inquiry hearings.

Cele said it was strange that Moloi’s report found him unfit for the job of police commissioner, though his performance in crime-fighting exceeded that of all his predecessors.

“How can you say I’m unfit?” he said.

“My efforts in crime-fighting seem to be irrelevant.”

Court application

Cele said he would file an application with the North Gauteng High Court by the end of the week.

He wanted the court to review President Jacob Zuma‘s decision to fire him based on the “flawed” report by Moloi.

Cele said Moloi had tried to tarnish his reputation.

He said he had minutes from a meeting that Moloi was present at with the prosecutors and people from ministers’ offices, discussing going to Zuma to ask to have more charges brought against Cele.

“If you [are] a presiding officer I would not expect you to sit in a meeting with prosecutors,” he said.

When asked what he would do next, Cele said he was going to KwaZulu-Natal to relax and think.
However, he did not rule out going back into politics.

Political life

“I love politics and politics loves me,” he said.

“I would not be surprised if I go back to the active political life.” Cele said he would never abandon the ANC.

He also said he continued to have an excellent relationship with Zuma.

“The root of the relationship is long; 25 years,” he said.

Despite going to court, Cele said he would “go quietly”.

“I will not engage in any pointless back-chattings; I will simply shut up and go home,” he said.

“I’m not dying for this job anymore.”

Durban – President Jacob Zuma has shown police chief Bheki Cele the door, nine months after suspending his one-time ally as the country’s top cop.

Cele is the second consecutive police commissioner to leave office under a cloud. He was appointed to succeed Jackie Selebi, who was later convicted of corruption and is currently serving a jail term.

The decision to fire Cele is in line with last month’s recommendations of the Moloi board of inquiry, which found that Cele was not fit to hold office and lacked capacity to execute his job.

The three-member board, headed by Judge Jake Moloi, was established by Zuma after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s investigation into two police headquarters lease deals, in which Cele’s involvement was found to be improper and amounting to maladministration.

Madonsela’s report also led to the sacking of then public works minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde.

Official announcement

While sources confirmed that Cele had been told to go, they declined to go on the record, saying it was the president’s prerogative to make the official announcement.

Presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj said on Wednesday night he had noted the rumours, but could not confirm or comment on them.

“It is safe to say that the president will make an announcement on this matter once he is ready.”

The Witness has reliably learnt that Cele was officially informed of his dismissal this week.

It appears the presidency decided to hold off making the announcement until after the court application by rights group Freedom Under Law for an interdict against suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli.

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday interdicted Mdluli from performing any official police duties pending FUL’s high court review of the decision to reinstate him as crime intelligence chief, despite allegations of murder and corruption levelled against him.

Meanwhile, the man tipped to take over from Cele, labour director-general Nathi Nhleko, was overseas and could not be reached for comment. 

Acting police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who appears to have burnt his bridges over his tough stance against Mdluli, declined to comment. 

In his reaction, Cele’s spokesperson Vuyo Mkhize would only say: “I’m certain if indeed the president has fired General Cele, he will be making an announcement to that effect pretty soon and therefore there can hardly be any need for me to entertain your speculation in this regard.”

Cele likely to fight back

Cele has previously indicated that he would seek a judicial review if he was fired, if only to clear his name, as he believed the board’s report was “fundamentally flawed”.

Mkhize told The Witness last month the report was “nothing but a crude hatchet job designed to dupe the president into believing that there is justifiable cause to rob South Africa of the services of the best police commissioner that the country has ever had”.

It was not clear whether any of the board’s other recommendations would be followed.

These included the suggestion that Cele’s relationship with property mogul Roux Shabangu, as well as with other members of the police service, should be the subject of a criminal investigation.

The fate of KZN police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni, and the police’s chief operations officer Bonang Mngwenya – who received a roasting in the Moloi report – was not clear.

The board took both women to task for trying to “mislead” it, although it subsequently transpired that the inquiry had erred in some observations about Ngobeni’s appointment. It could not be established whether the action against Cele meant that Ngobeni and Mngwenya were also in trouble.

Police ministry spokesperson Zweli Mnisi said the minister, Nathi Mthethwa, would not comment on police operational matters. Community Safety MEC Willies Mchunu would also not comment.

SA Police Service spokesperson Brigadier Lindela Mashigo said the police had not received the Moloi report and could therefore not comment on what likely action, if any, would be taken against Ngobeni.

“No one within Saps has the report. It is still with the presidency and once we have received it, we will study it and determine if any action needs to be taken.”

Mashigo said he was aware of the media speculation about Cele’s dismissal, but could not comment. He too referred The Witness to the presidency.

Charm offensive

The KZN ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) this week resolved that its top five officials should seek a meeting with Zuma, after allegations that non-ANC members were seen to have more protection than those who with struggle credentials.

Among those mentioned were former communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda, former sports minister Makhenkesi Stofile and Cele himself. An ANC regional secretary confirmed the issue was discussed, but would not be drawn into giving more details. Nor would he say whether there would be a move by some in the KZN ANC to secure a political position for Cele.

He would only say that the PEC had discussed matters of national and provincial importance, and that the Cele issue was still “very sensitive to talk about”.

Speaking to The Witness on condition of anonymity, ANC KZN sources said Cele was on a “charm offensive” and had met councillors and senior branch members to “win over hearts and minds”.

His supporters said that while they believed he might have to keep a low profile for now, he would make a political comeback.

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National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele will soon – possibly as early as Thursday –leave the service in disgrace.

Three police sources have confirmed to Independent Newspapers that Cele was informed of his imminent axing on Wednesday, but that the official announcement – which was supposed to have taken place on Wednesday – had been postponed at the eleventh hour.

The sources confirmed that Cele had been instructed to vacate his office and that his replacement was due to report for duty on July 1.

President Jacob Zuma may have delayed the announcement following fresh developments in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday afternoon in which now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t crime intelligence boss, Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli, was barred from performing any duties in the police.

An announcement of Cele’s dismissal on the same day would have come as a severe body blow to an already punch-drunk police service reeling under claims of political interference in internal police investigations, ongoing turf wars and allegations of a spillover into the police of party political manoeuvring in the run-up to the ANC’s elective conference in December.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said on Wednesday night: “All I can say is that the president will make known his decision when he is ready to do so.”

A board of inquiry appointed by Zuma to determine whether Cele was fit to hold office recommended last month that he be fired. It found that, in pushing for the police and public works departments to lease the overpriced buildings of businessman Roux Shabangu, Cele had acted “dishonestly” and “with an undeclared conflict of interest”.

“(T)he board is duty bound to recommend that the president … orders his removal from office. The evidence proved abundantly that there was a questionable relationship between (Cele) and Shabangu … and between Shabangu and the officials within the Department of Public Works, on the other hand, as well as between (Cele) and some members of the SAPS,” chairman Judge Jake Moloi concluded.

This followed similar findings by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela last year. Her investigation concluded that Cele’s involvement in the leasing scandal was “improper, unlawful” and amounted to “maladministration”, prompting widespread calls for the general’s head to roll. But Cele was suspended, pending the outcome of the board of inquiry.

Cele could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night. Eyewitness News reported on Thursday morning that Cele said he had not heard from Zuma, nor had he heard any rumours that he had been fired.

There has been mounting speculation in recent weeks that Zuma may replace Cele with advocate Nathi Nhleko, currently the director-general in the Department of Labour and an old colleague of Zuma’s.

However, Maharaj last week dismissed these rumours.

Two police sources confirmed on Wednesday night that Nhleko had already undergone a preliminary vetting process, but a third suggested that Zuma had had a last-minute change of heart and was now considering a woman for the position.

Acting police chief Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi is perceived in some quarters as being too independently minded to be given the job on a permanent basis. This view has gained currency after Mkhwanazi bucked the trend by moving against Mdluli. –

Political Bureau

Barry Bateman 

PRETORIA – The Presidency expressed concern on Friday at what appears to be a leak of the report on Bheki Cele.

It said the leak may force some people to act outside of the law.

According to reports in the Witness newspaper on Thursday, Judge Jakes Moloi has recommended the firing of suspended National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele.

Moloi led a commission of inquiry that was setup up by President Jacob Zuma in November 2011 to probe allegations of misconduct against Cele, and establish whether he is fit to hold office.

The retired judge handed his report to Zuma on Sunday.

According to the reports, Moloi found that Cele was unfit to hold office.

The 113 page document reportedly stated that Cele lacked the capacity to execute his official duties efficiently.

The board is believed to have found grave misconduct as well as unlawful conduct, proving he is unfit to hold office.

It is understood Moloi found that the evidence suggested there was a questionable relationship between Cele and businessman Roux Shabangu.

The presidency’s Mac Maharaj dismissed the reports as speculation, saying Zuma was still studying the document.

President Jacob Zuma’s office on Monday confirmed that it had received the report from the board of inquiry.

Allegations of misconduct arose when two leases for new police headquarters in Pretoria and Durban were declared unlawful by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

The deals were worth a combined total of R1,6 billion and were to be leased from controversial businessman Roux Shabangu.

The board sat for several weeks earlier this year and explored allegations of maladministration against Cele after hearing submissions as well as evidence during the public hearings in Pretoria.

Moloi was assisted by advocates Terry Motau and Anthea Platt during the inquiry.

The evidence leader called for the general to be suspended, while his defence maintained there was never any wrongdoing on his part.

The report is expected to be handed to Cele, Parliament, the National Council of Provinces as well as the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Safety and Security.

(Edited by Clare Matthes)