Cele guilty of improper conduct

Pretoria - Public Protector Thuli Madonsela on Tuesday found that national police commissioner Bheki Cele was guilty of improper conduct and maladministration when the police entered into a R500m lease for the Sanlam Middestad Building in Pretoria.

Briefing media in Pretoria, she initially only referred to "the accounting officer" of the South African Police Service (SAPS) as being guilty of improper conduct. Asked who this was, Madonsela said Cele, as head of the police, was the accounting officer.

She found the accounting officer of the department of public works was also guilty of improper conduct and maladministration.

Madonsela found the lease between the department of public works and property tycoon Roux Shabangu's Roux Property Fund to be invalid, and in her report she requested the National Treasury to review the lease to see what steps could be taken to terminate it.

There was no evidence that Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had been involved in the deal.

A violation of public administration laws did not necessarily amount to a crime, she said.

Madonsela still had to finalise her report on a building police wanted to lease in Durban. She expected this report to be finalised in the next month.

Many of the people involved in the Pretoria deal were also involved in the Durban one.

"One of the things we are still trying to ascertain is how did Mr Shabangu get involved with SAPS," she said.

This, Madonsela hoped, would become clearer when the investigation into the Durban deal was completed.

The SAPS said it would not comment immediately on the Public Protector's report.

"The SAPS has not received the report. Once we do so, we will carefully study the voluminous document before we are in a position to pronounce on the contents," it said.

"The SAPS will not, therefore, comment on the matter at this stage."