KwaZulu-NatalDirectorate for Priority Crime Investigation(the Hawks) head Lesetja Senona says he was removed from his office and his electronic devices were seized on the instruction of provincial police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi while he is under investigation. The Hawks have denied that Senona has been suspended or dismissed, saying he remained an employee of the directorate. Senona alleged that he was ordered to vacate his office at the KwaZulu-Natal provincial headquarters in Durban.
He said his removal amounted to an illegal action taken without formal notice. This comes after his name was included in an interim report by the Madlanga Commission. The commission is probing allegations of corruption and political interference in the criminal justice system first made by Mkhwanazi last July.
Theinterim reportlists individuals who should be investigated as a follow-on to the Madlanga inquiry and was adopted last week by President Cyril Ramaphosa. The president set up an investigation team to be headed by acting police minister Firoz Cachalia and national police commissioner Fannie Masemola. At the Madlanga Commission last week, Senonadenied the allegationsthat he had leaked police information to businessman and alleged leader of the Big 5 cartelVusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala.
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He accused Mkhwanazi of intimidation, saying the provincial police commissioner had sent him several messages before his testimony and was responsible for Senona’s redeployment within the Hawks. Senona’s legal counsel said he had been escorted out of his office by a police captain acting on Mkhwanazi’s instructions, adding that the move was illegal and the matter under investigation. The lawyers added that their client had not been formally suspended and had not received any written notice explaining the reasons for the action taken against him.
In a statement responding to the lawyers’ assertions, police in KwaZulu-Natal disputed that Senona had been forcibly removed from office or stripped of his equipment. The statement said Senona had a designated senior manager’s parking bay at the provincial headquarters, which remained available to him at all times and that he had exhibited “unusual” behaviour at the workplace on Saturday. Senona allegedly arrived at the provincial headquarters and parked his vehicle in the street opposite the building rather than in his allocated parking bay inside.
He was later joined by another colonel from the Hawks, who entered Senona’s vehicle and the pair remained there for about 45 minutes before Senona and his secretary entered the building. The police said that on weekends and after normal working hours, all personnel entering the building, regardless of rank, were required to sign a register. Senona, they said, had gone to his office without signing the register, while his secretary had signed only for herself.
The colonel who had entered the building had also failed to sign the register. “The unusual events of Major General Senona coming to work on a Saturday, the parking of his vehicle on the street and not at his parking bay inside the building, the unusual in-the-car meeting on the street with a Colonel, and the failure to sign the mandatory register raised security concerns,” the statement said.
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