The Independent Police Investigative Directorate’s (Ipid) investigation report remains the final critical avenue to hold power to account. Accessing the report is essential for the fight against the abuses of power to protect President Cyril Ramaphosa from the events at Phala Phala, it said.

ActionSA has formally appealed to Ipid’s refusal to unseal the document, which investigates the conduct of presidential protection unit members allegedly involved in the Phala Phala robbery investigation.

ActionSA challenges secrecy

Its legal team has been exploring possible litigation to challenge the use of minimum information security standards as justification for classifying the report. However, legal advice indicated that the appeal mechanism must first be exhausted.

Ipid’s decision to label the report “top secret” contradicts both cabinet policy and constitutional provisions, which reserve such classification for matters that could trigger war or jeopardize diplomatic relations, ActionSA said.

“These actions are the latest in a line taken to ensure South Africans have access to the information they deserve,” national chairperson Michael Beaumont, “and to ensure that the president does not operate above the law in a parliament where many former opposition parties have been silenced by blue lights, mansions and other public-funded luxuries.”

ActionSA submitted a formal Paia request in April to have the Phala Phala report unsealed. That request was followed by delays attributed to IPID’s email system being down. 

Consequently, ActionSA submitted a parliamentary question to the minister of police to determine whether the system outage was real and whether such an issue could legitimately prevent Ipid from fulfilling its constitutional obligations.

“After a whitewashed report by public protector Kholeka Gcaleka, and despite the South African Reserve Bank clearing the president of violating exchange control laws, the South African public still does not have access to the information it rightfully deserves,” Beaumont added.

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“Upon entering parliament last year, ActionSA declared that it would not simply allow the Phala Phala matter to be swept aside in the manner now seemingly accepted by parties in the government of national unity, whose access to power is now tied to the president,” added Beaumont.

Key facts remain obscured from the public, including the involvement of presidential protection unit members in the farm robbery investigation, allegedly in violation of police service policies and the law, he added. Instead of accountability, the episode has been buried to reward those who covered up for the president.

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OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi mvh