Cape Town - National police commissioner Fannie Masemola and the National Prosecuting Authority are sitting on the recommendations into Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) detective Charl Kinnear’s murder investigation, which implicates senior policemen, MPs heard.
This emerged as the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) submitted a classified report into Kinnear’s killing to Parliament.
Kinnear was shot and killed in 2020 outside his Bishop Lavis home.
Ipid compiled a classified report and submitted it to the police committee on Friday. However, MPs batted the document away without perusing it as they had not received it in advance and amid questions around top secret clearance of some MPs.
Freedom Front Plus leader, Dr Pieter Groenewald, pressed police committee chairperson, ANC MP Tina Joemat-Pettersson, to stick to her promise on Wednesday to discuss the matter soon.
He quizzed Ipid on why the report was classified as top secret and asked Joemat-Pettersson why it couldn’t be declassified. Groenewald said that there is a perception that some people were being protected.
Ipid executive director Jennifer Ntlatseng confirmed Groenewald’s suspicions and said the report was classified because the investigation implicated senior people. “We’ve sent the report to the National Prosecuting Authority so they can consider our recommendations.
“We’ve sent the report to the national commissioner on recommendations, but we have not yet received any response from them to say how far they are with the process,” Ntlaseng said.
Groenewald said that was unacceptable and demanded Ntlaseng puts his response on the probe and about the classification in writing.
Joemat-Pettersson said the report was handed to her five minutes before the committee sat and she had not yet seen it.
She said Kinnear’s wife, Nicolette, had sent a petition to Speaker Nomvula Mapisa-Nqakula about the investigation, but the Speaker referred her to Police Minister Bheki Cele.
Joemat-Pettersson said she did not want to be seen as “micromanaging” a police investigation by tabling it on the agenda every week and would not compromise it by discussing a classified document, not least a presentation submitted minutes before a committee sat.
“I’ve never allowed a walk-in presentation in this committee. And I will not allow any walk-in presentation … That is a ruling,” Joemat-Pettersson said.
ANC MPs backed Joemat-Pettersson on her ruling that she avoids setting a precedent by discussing an ongoing investigation.
Interspersed with reminders, questions were put to police national spokesperson Athlenda Mathe about the Kinnear investigation’s recommendations, but Mathe had not responded to queries.
NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said he had been in court, was not aware of Ipid’s claim and the query was at short notice on Friday.