Three ministers wanted me ‘removed’ over commission bundle – spy watchdog

Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI), Setlhomamaru Dintwe, says three Cabinet ministers wanted to impede his testimony before the Commission of Inquiry in Allegations of State Capture.

Dintwe on Tuesday told commission chair, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that Police Minister Bheki Cele, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo even went as far as asking President Cyril Ramaphosa to suspend him for “incompetence”.

Dintwe said he learned of the proposed suspension on the day he was expecting correspondence from the ministers and Ramaphosa regarding his commission evidence bundle.

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He had provided the four with copies of the evidence bundle he was planning to submit to the commission and was expecting feedback.

“The complaint came at the time I was expecting their inputs.

“I provided the three ministers and the president with a full bundle and said that I’m intending to disclose this information to the commission,” Dintwe said.

He indicated that the bundle was gone for about “two or three weeks” and Ramaphosa set a date at which they would all reconvene.

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“On that date, instead of getting the inputs, I then received three bound documents, under the cover of a letter from the president. The president was informing me that he received complaints from the three ministers,” Dintwe said.

Dintwe suggested that although the complaint letters from the ministers should have been written separately, there was “serious commonality between them”, implying they could have been drafted in collaboration.

The first complaint, in all three letters, was that “I disclosed information to the commission before I consulted”.

“The recommendation they were making to the president was that I should be suspended and be removed from this position [of Inspector-General of Intelligence] on the basis of incompetence,” Dintwe told Zondo.

Dintwe is due to return to the commission on Wednesday evening to continue his evidence.