By BONGANI FUZILE and MALIBONGWE DAYIMANI
When Hawks head Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza established the national task team to investigate graft in the Eastern Cape, he had hoped for smooth work and the swift arrests of those implicated in fraud and corruption.
He brought along his Eastern Cape “homeboy” Brigadier Mziwabo Mafalala to head the team, and they arrived in the province to much fanfare. They were to work with Captain Lupumlo Lwana and other investigators in the province.
Prosecuting Advocate Diniso Ketani was sourced from Pretoria to work on many of these cases.
Several arrests were made and some of the cases are already in court.
But cracks in the relationship between suspended provincial Hawks head Major-General Nyameko Nogwanya and Ntlemeza started to emerge. Sources within the Hawks say the divisions were caused by allegations that some politicians should be investigated as the province headed towards the highly contested provincial ANC conference.
“Then there was a division within the Hawks heads with Nogwanya trying to stop the arrest or investigations of then provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane and other regional senior leaders as there was no evidence that they had done anything wrong.
“On the other side, Ntlemeza wanted to see his task team sweep all the targeted people,” said the source, who has an intimate knowledge of a number of investigations within the Hawks.
This “infighting” led to the task team being scrapped. The team members, headed by Mafalala, were told to return to their respective provinces by May 31 2017.
The decision to disband the team was made by acting Hawks national head Lieutenant-General Yolisa Matakata, who took over from Ntlemeza.
The decision to disband raised fears that charges against those who had been arrested, would be dropped or delayed.
Indeed three months later, all the dockets from Lwana were removed.
The Eastern Cape legislature’s portfolio committee chairman on safety and liaison Michael Peter called on provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga for answers.
But in August, the team was assembled again, but “we have not seen any new cases that they've worked on”, said a source.
Nogwanya, Ntlemeza relationship full of cracks
When Hawks head Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza established the national task team to investigate graft in the Eastern Cape, he had hoped for smooth work and the swift arrests of those implicated in fraud and corruption.
He brought along his Eastern Cape “homeboy” Brigadier Mziwabo Mafalala to head the team, and they arrived in the province to much fanfare. They were to work with Captain Lupumlo Lwana and other investigators in the province.
Prosecuting Advocate Diniso Ketani was sourced from Pretoria to work on many of these cases.
Several arrests were made and some of the cases are already in court.
But cracks in the relationship between suspended provincial Hawks head Major-General Nyameko Nogwanya and Ntlemeza started to emerge. Sources within the Hawks say the divisions were caused by allegations that some politicians should be investigated as the province headed towards the highly contested provincial ANC conference.
“Then there was a division within the Hawks heads with Nogwanya trying to stop the arrest or investigations of then provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane and other regional senior leaders as there was no evidence that they had done anything wrong.
“On the other side, Ntlemeza wanted to see his task team sweep all the targeted people,” said the source, who has an intimate knowledge of a number of investigations within the Hawks.
This “infighting” led to the task team being scrapped. The team members, headed by Mafalala, were told to return to their respective provinces by May 31 2017.
The decision to disband the team was made by acting Hawks national head Lieutenant-General Yolisa Matakata, who took over from Ntlemeza.
The decision to disband raised fears that charges against those who had been arrested, would be dropped or delayed.
Indeed three months later, all the dockets from Lwana were removed.
The Eastern Cape legislature’s portfolio committee chairman on safety and liaison Michael Peter called on provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga for answers.
But in August, the team was assembled again, but “we have not seen any new cases that they've worked on”, said a source.
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