Nhleko defends ‘lawful’ request for Ipid docket
Former Police Minister Nathi Nhleko has told the commission of inquiry into state capture that he believes he acted lawfully when he demanded information from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) in 2014.
He was reacting to comments by evidence leader, Advocate Garth Hulley, who pointed out that the Ipid Act only states that the unit should inform the minister of police about an investigation that is being referred to the National Prosecuting Authority.
It is not supposed to hand over dockets.
"So what you as the minister have to be informed of is that Ipid made an investigation and believes that the case should be prosecuted, not to provide you with a docket," said Hulley.
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But Nhleko replied: "No, generally speaking in the application of institutional instruments there are ideal situations. But in this instance Mr. Hulley, you might be missing one point which is that we already had allegations of misconduct leveled against the very same Ipid.”
At the time, Ipid was accused of tampering with evidence after it produced two reports on the renditions containing different recommendations.
Nhleko told the commission that he did seek internal legal advice before requesting Ipid to hand over the docket. He believes the section of the act that speaks about information Ipid can give a minister is subject to interpretation.
