{"id":20579,"date":"2013-06-21T16:41:58","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T14:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/slush-fund-was-abused-says-report\/"},"modified":"2013-06-21T16:41:58","modified_gmt":"2013-06-21T14:41:58","slug":"slush-fund-was-abused-says-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/slush-fund-was-abused-says-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Slush fund was abused, says report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        \t                                <!-- Main Editorial Image --><br \/>\n                    \t\t\t      \t\t\t                                                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/954dd_2214082912.jpg\" alt=\"IOL pic may10 police logo saps\" title=\"\" class=\"pics\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"captions_credit_article\">\n<p class=\"captions\">\n<p class=\"captions\">\n<p class=\"related_articles\">Related Stories<\/p>\n<ul class=\"menu_tab_lists_related\">\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/news\/crime-courts\/slush-fund-top-cops-in-court-1.1474846\">\u2018Slush fund\u2019 top cops in court<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--PSTYLE=WT Web Text--><\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Durban &#8211; The SAPS crime intelligence unit has been a law unto itself, a report says. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The unit has had \u201ca bit of a blank cheque\u201d to do as it pleases &#8211; abusing its slush fund and encroaching on the domain of the State Security Agency in the process. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">This has cost taxpayers millions of rand and created serious tension between the two law enforcement agencies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">This is contained in the Green Paper on policing, also known as the \u201cbible of policing\u201d, put together by the Civilian Secretariat of Police and released for public comment this week. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The Green Paper comes as a number of crime intelligence unit members face criminal charges for, among other things, illegally benefiting from the \u201cslush fund\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">In 2011, the unit\u2019s former head Richard Mdluli was charged with fraud and corruption for allegedly misusing the fund. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">On April 20 this year, crime intelligence unit chief financial officer Major-General Solly Lazarus and the unit\u2019s head of logistics, Colonel Hein Barnard, appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate\u2019s Court. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Both have been suspended after being charged with theft, fraud and corruption involving R1.1 million. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The two have been ordered not to contact politicians or cabinet ministers or discuss the case with them. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cOne of the main problems faced by crime intelligence is that it has had a bit of a \u2018blank cheque\u2019. This has allowed officers to operate in areas that traditionally fall within the domain of the State Security Agency. This blurring of the lines between crime intelligence and state security has led to serious tensions and issues relating to a lack of accountability within crime intelligence,\u201d reads the report. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The green paper further stated that \u201cthere is a difference\u201d between national security intelligence and law enforcement intelligence. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cLaw enforcement intelligence should support the development of evidence for prosecution of criminal cases and be able to identify crime risks and crime information that can support policing approaches and the efficient deployment of resources,\u201d reads the document. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Zweli Mnisi, spokesman for Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa, said the \u201cblank cheque\u201d reference in the Green Paper was just a metaphor referring to how certain officials had \u201ccarte blanche\u201d going beyond their required responsibilities. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cThe Green Paper on policing will be like the bible of policing in the future. But it\u2019s not the alpha and omega of policing, which is why it\u2019s being put out before the public,\u201d said Mnisi. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">He said the documents touched on the general \u201cenvironment of crime intelligence and not really the slush fund\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cIt\u2019s looking at all those elements in totality. There has been abuse of power. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cIt notes the overlap and will give more clarity of roles,\u201d said Mnisi. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The Green Paper dismissed the notion that the military ranks introduced by former police commissioner Bheki Cele had led to the \u201cmilitarisation\u201d of the police service. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\"><strong>The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Related Stories \u2018Slush fund\u2019 top cops in court Durban &#8211; The SAPS crime intelligence unit has been a law unto itself, a report says. The unit has had \u201ca bit of a blank cheque\u201d to do as it pleases &#8211; abusing its slush fund and encroaching on the domain of the State Security Agency in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-20579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}