Cape Town - Police commissioner-general Fannie Masemola’s suggestion to MPs that spooks assess the threats on whistle-blower Patricia Morgan-Mashale’s life instead of police has been shot down by the woman, who is in hiding.
Morgan-Mashale appeared before the police committee, where MPs asked Masemola about her safety after she lifted the lid on a slew of allegations of corruption and nepotism, among other things, in SAPS management in the Free State and alleged cover-ups by Minister Bheki Cele.
Morgan-Mashale was allegedly dismissed in February as a police clerk after submitting a dossier on corruption in disciplinary hearings, and has conducted several media interviews. She claims there have been two attempts on her life.
MPs demanded that her safety be guaranteed.
DA MP Ockert Stefanus Terblanche said: “This committee needs to attend to the safety of Ms Mashale. In the meantime, we must ensure that the police will look into it. That is something we cannot just leave until next time.”
National Freedom Party MP Ahmed Munzoor Shaik Emam said: “A very important point is the safety and security of Ms Mashale, and I think we need to intervene to ensure that something is done to protect her while the processes and petitions are being dealt with.”
Police committee chairperson ANC MP Tina Joemat-Pettersson said while she understood MPs could not instruct the police to offer protection to the whistle-blower, she asked whether a request for threat and risk analysis could be done.
Masemola said they had done one, but procedures weren’t followed and the report wasn’t accepted.
“I don’t think that it will be a good idea that a threat assessment be done by SAPS,” Masemola said. He suggested forwarding the request to the State Security Agency (SSA) to do the assessment.
But Morgan-Mashale refused the offer and said that spooks had tried to confiscate her phone.
“I can’t expose myself to the SSA (again). I don’t want them to do the assessment. No, no, no!” she insisted.
She listed a plethora of reasons that she doesn’t trust the SSA, but Joemat-Pettersson said she has to submit proof.
MPs spent the better part of proceedings discussing confusion around petitions which had been sent by Morgan-Mashale.
Morgan-Mashale has an online petition with more than 20 000 signatures, which Joemat-Pettersson said had not been sent to her and National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, despite requests.
Although Morgan-Mashale had not sent her protected disclosures and her petition, Joemat-Pettersson made an exemption as it was brought to her attention by ANC and opposition MPs.
Morgan-Mashale said she had not been receiving assistance from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office, Joemat-Pettersson, Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), among others.
Morgan-Mashale said she had sent the petition numerous times between November 9 and 11, but she was told by an official that they were struggling to open it, and she was later told that it was eventually sent to the Speaker’s office.
Joemat-Pettersson said what they received wasn’t a petition, which has to go through a strict process and format and verified format as it is a legal document.
Joemat-Pettersson said her petition digressed from being about the police to being about Joemat-Pettersson and against committee secretary Babalwa Mbengo and an Ipid executive director.
Joemat-Pettersson said they would assist the whistle-blower with the threat assessment.
soyiso.maliti@inl.co.za