Self-styled whistleblower and former South African Police Services (SAPS) employee Patricia Mashale was at the Ad Hoc committee probing allegations of corruption and political interference in the criminal justice system.
She gave “evidence”, most of which was not contained in her written statement submitted to the committee.
From implicating people such as Deputy Minister of Intelligence Zizi Kodwa and ex-Free State premier Ace Magashule from hearsay stories, Mashale was in her usual element as she has been doing for years on social media platforms.
Deviated from her submitted statements
The evidence leader on multiple occasions raised concern that most of the things Mashale was saying were in fact not contained in her statement before the committee.
She would insist that some of the stuff is not in the statement which was limited to specific issues. But she insisted on having evidence of same.
Mashale once again painted herself as a whistleblower who got sacked from SAPS, where she was an administration clerk, for fighting against malfeasance within the service.
“I started to make the protected disclosures in 2018 to General (Khehla) Sithole. It started with the firearms in 2018 that General Sithole never handled. I was responsible for monitoring firearm applications and firearms meant for destruction in Free State. I called General Sithole. He referred me to General Lebeya, who refereed me to General Moodley as the head of the hawks in the Free State,” said Mashale.
Illegal guns alert ignored by authorities
She told the committee that she had noticed, through a colleague, that guns that were declared to have been disposed of, would in fact find their way back into the system and be sold to go commit crimes.
Asked how she was involved in matters of firearm control as a mere admin clerk, she said she was invited to the terrain by those who worked in the division. Those who were concerned about the discrepancies were being ignored by authorities.
She further told the committee that she made more another protected disclosures in 2021. This time it was about the rot within the SA Revenue Services (Sars), especially in the Free State where she worked.
“When General (Nhlanhla) Mkhwanazi said there is a corruption in the NPA and judiciary, he was right. And I have evidence of that, especially int he Free State.”
Some of the information, she told the committee, was revealed to her by her husband. He also worked in the service, and the two of them were fighting wrongdoing together.
Teamed with husband to report corruption
The husband collects the information, she said, and she analyses it and exposes it to the public. And the man was a close confidante of former national commissioner Khehla Sithole.
“My husband had a very close relationship with General Sithole. We even knew he got appointed as provincial commissioner of the Free State through recommendation by Ace Magashule,” she said.
She also said that through an intermediary, Kodwa had asked for her to provide information about ministers that were plotting against President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Mashale was also grilled about how she allegedly got employed through shady arrangements at SAPS when she started in 2007. This as testified to by SAPS crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo when he appeared before the committee.
She denied the claims, saying it was all rumours that started ages ago when she was still in the service.
“Shortly after I started working, there was a rumour that I was dismissed form the department of health. And that I was appointed at SAPS with the late former deputy provincial commissioner Eric Nkuna.
Denies irregular appointment claims
“In December 2007, secretary of Nkuna was on leave. The staff officer randomly chose someone, and they chose me. I did not have a choice, it was an instruction. I was assisting there for two weeks. Suddenly a rumour swelled that I had a romantic relationship with Nkuna. I did not, and he was not part of the recruitment.”
Mashale also testified that she had never provided information to suspended minister of police Senzo Mchunu. She was referring to Mchunu’s decision to shut down the political killings task team (PKTT). The latter was the source of Ad Hoc committee probes as well as the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.
Mchunu had testified before the committee that information from Mashale and disputed academic Marry de Haas was among pieces of information that informed his controversial decision.
Mchunu used PKTT Facebook info
Mashale threw the man under the bus: “I never submitted a complaint to the minister (Mchunu). I share information on Facebook.”
She also got an opportunity to explain her obsession with the Senzo Meyiwa murder case. And she says it is very close to her heart.
“The Sindiso Magaqa case is very close to my heart. The hitman who shot Sindiso Magaqa sent a message to me that I must please assist him he wants to make a confession. As a result thereof, I sent a message to Cedric Nkabinde and Fadiel Adamas. They both… travelled to KZN and got a statement from the suspect, who said they do not want to allow me to plead guilty. He said I was almost poisoned, these people want to kill me.”
Later on, she submitted to the committee an audio recording. It allegedly had the voices of Joburg director of prosecutions Advocate Andrew Chauke and a cousin of late Senzo Meyiwa, a certain Siyabonga Meyiwa.
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Mawande AmaShabalala
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