Eight months ago, head of Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department media unit Lieutenant-Colonel Kelebogile Thepa broke down in tears at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry as she gave harrowing testimony of being hijacked by three armed assailants one weekend. Her attackers made it clear that they were after information on her cellphone, information that related to her job. Although no arrests were made regarding several attacks on her, it was clear someone very powerful in the department wanted her gone and, eventually, they got their wish.
She was removed from the position – although she was reinstated after her testimony. This is an instance where someone went beyond abuse of power into the realm of threatening the life of a subordinate. Last week, former Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) chief, advocate Andrea Johnson, who has since thrown in the towel, admitted under oath she, too, abused the power of her office, issuing warrants of arrest for several Crime Intelligence officials, accusing them of state capture.
She apologised publicly to Brigadier Dineo Mokwele, head of Crime Intelligence technical support, for labelling her a token appointment. Johnson was not only painted into a corner by the three commissioners, she was made to face the nation and admit her wrongdoings. She offered to resign in a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the national director of public prosecutions (NDPP).
The president accepted her resignation. The similarities in the treatment of Thepa and Mokwele might be missed because Thepa had guns pointed at her, while Mokwele did not. But both were at the hands of a state official who went out of their way to make life unbearable for state employees who had done no wrong whatsoever.
Johnson used all her powers to investigate 12 individuals, accusing them of a wide range of criminal offences, almost collapsing Crime Intelligence. It now remains to be seen what the NDPP will do with the case. The scary thing for all victims is had it not been for the setting up of the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, their ordeals would most likely never have come to light.
They would have been victims of officials who got drunk on power and unleashed chaos in the lives of their subordinates, with zero considerations for their sanity. All these things they did because they believed they would never be brought to account.
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