Police Minister Becky Celle made a not-so-covert accusation that State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo lied when he said he had provided police with adequate intelligence before the looting.
Johannesburg – During the worst crisis facing post-democratic South Africa, factional battles within the ANC emerged as ministers and the party publicly quarreled over the chaos that engulfed parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Police Minister Becky Celle made a not-so-covert accusation that State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo lied when he said he had provided police with adequate intelligence before the looting.
Celle told the parliament’s police portfolios committee that he had never seen an intelligence document warning of a failed uprising. This was the first time he had been tested for intelligence obtained from SAPS since the violence broke out.
“This information that we received, this information that we analyzed and packaged, was passed on to the police,” Dlodlo said emphatically last week.
But Cele said Tuesday that he had never seen the intelligence warnings. He calls it a product – a commonly used phrase for collected intelligence.
“You are a minister, that would give me a product, because the SSA minister cannot give a product directly to the other DG. He will have to contact me and give it to the national commissioner (the police).
This is back and forth within the security cluster who is to blame for the failure to protect the country’s national security.
Celle said there must be evidence that he received the information.
“I want to repeat here that I have never received the product (intelligence). This product, you sign when you receive them. When you receive a State Security product, you sign. Go check my signature there, I want to end this. “
There are growing calls for all security cluster ministers to be fired following Ramaphosa’s outspoken acknowledgment that the country is unprepared for the chaos that has unfolded.
Earlier, Defense Minister Nosiveve Mapisa-Nkakula was quoted as saying that what happened in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal was a failed uprising, contrary to President Kiril Ramaphosa.
Presidency Minister Khumbuzo Ncaveni then told the media that Mapisa-Nkakula’s comments were not supported by law enforcement facts.
Mapisa-Nkakula has since told eNCA that she had no intention of contradicting Ramaphosa.
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This article first appeared on EWN: Police Minister Celle – I have never received a warning from the intelligence about robberies