Former Ekurhuleni city manager Imogen Mashazi denies protecting EMPD top cop Julius Mkhwanazi

The first-time former Ekurhuleni city manager Imogen Mashazi heard of the “blue lights scandal” at her metro was in September 2023, when she was handed an Ipid report that recommended criminal charges and disciplinary action against senior police officer Julius Mkhwanazi, she told the Madlanga commission on Monday.

This was seven months after News24 journalist Jeff Wicks had first sent a media inquiry on the issue and on which there had been media reports.

It was after an internal departmental investigation had been launched and after Mkhwanazi had been placed on suspension. It was after Mkhwanazi had returned from suspension and there had been a fight about his redeployment in correspondence in which Mashazi had been copied.

Commissioner Sandile Khumalo SC said: “So something which was in the news and cast the municipality in a bad light, you are saying for about six or seven months you were not aware of it and nobody told you about it?”

“I was not aware. I became aware with the Ipid report,” she said, adding that she did not watch television because she had been bullied by the media.

Mashazi, who testified over Monday and Tuesday, has been accused by no less than four witnesses before her of going to extraordinary lengths to protect Mkhwanazi.

In the blue lights scandal, Mkhwanazi is alleged to have registered cars that belonged to companies owned by alleged cartel leader Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala under the name of the city and then given them letters, on EMPD letter heads, which said they were working with the EMPD — effectively a carte blanche should they have been stopped by law enforcement. The cars were then unlawfully fitted with blue lights.

Suspended police chief Jabulani Mapiyeye, former deputy chief Revo Spies and former divisional head of employee relations Xolani Nciza all testified that Mashazi had gone out of her way to block their efforts to hold Mkhwanazi to account.

At the commission, Mashazi sought to distance herself from it all. She was emphatic that Nciza’s and Mapiyeye’s claims that they met her at Dada Motor World in February to tell her that an investigation was being initiated were untrue.

“I never met with them,” she said. She would not hold a meeting outside of the office.

Commissioner Sesi Baloyi SC asked why they would be dishonest about an allegation that was “so benign” and was in fact portraying her in a good light. “I don’t know,” she said.

“I did not stop or interfere in the withdrawal of the investigation, nor did I stop the department from charging Brig Mkhwanazi. And I also deny the fact that I called both the chief of police and Xolani Nciza through WhatsApp. My phone is free for any investigation through the relevant authorities to check if I did make that call or those calls. I deny that I ever called them to stop the investigation, to stop the disciplinary action,” she said.

She brought screenshots to back this up — to counter, in particular, Nciza’s claim that when Mapiyeye had requested an extension of Mkhwanazi’s suspension, Nciza had missed a call from Mashazi on the evening of May 23 2023.

When Nciza called her back “she just came at me. [She] raised the issue of the extension of Mkhwanazi‘s suspension. She said, ‘Yes, you guys hate Julius, you and your friend, Chief Mapiyeye, you hate Julius.’ You know, we must leave Julius alone,” Nciza had testified.

Mashazi said she had not called Nciza and her WhatsApp records confirmed this. However, her version was contradicted when evidence leader Mahlape Sello SC asked her: “Do you confirm that you have not deleted anything in that WhatsApp communication before you submitted?” Mashazi confirmed.

Sello said: “We have been furnished with a WhatsApp screenshot from another phone, Mr Nciza’s phone. And I think it is incumbent upon me to inform you that it is similar to your [screenshot], except after that … there is an entry of 23 May 2023, which reflects a missed call at 18:13.”

I am actually dealing with a lot of issues, to be honest, and I cannot be expected to remember each and every letter that was cc‘d to me. As I indicated, I am running a big metro with 25 departments, over 18,000 employees with different challenges. So it is important to know that at some point, some of the things will actually not be dealt with accordingly in terms of my responsibilities as an accounting officer.

—  Imogen Mashazi, Ekurhuleni city manager

Mashazi said Nciza must prove it, “or in fact this must be proved by the service provider”, she said.

Earlier, Sello had asked Mashazi about Mapiyeye’s evidence that on Mkhwanazi’s return from suspension, he had redeployed Mkhwanazi to a different department — away from “where all the things were happening” and to prevent him from interfering with witnesses. This was then scuppered by head of HR, Linda Gxasheka, because the redeployment was “not what was approved”.

Approved by who, asked Sello? Mashazi replied that this was an HR matter between Mapiyeye and Gxasheka and Gxasheka would have to answer whose approval she was referring to.

When Mapiyeye had objected because redeployments fell within his functional competence, he had cc’d Mashazi in his email to Gxasheka. Sello asked why Mashazi had not intervened to back Mapiyeye up — since he was, in law, correct. Mashazi said she couldn’t remember whether she had seen the email from Mapiyeye.

“I am actually dealing with a lot of issues, to be honest, and I cannot be expected to remember each and every letter that was cc‘d to me. As I indicated, I am running a big metro with 25 departments, over 18,000 employees with different challenges. So it is important to know that at some point, some of the things will actually not be dealt with accordingly in terms of my responsibilities as an accounting officer,” she said.

When she received the Ipid report, it was not her decision to stop the disciplinary proceedings against Mkhwanazi, she told the commission. She took advice from head of legal, advocate Kemi Behari, she said.

“Remember, I am not a lawyer. Any legal document that comes to me, I must refer it to corporate and legal, hence we have that department. So whatever advice is sitting here, I think the opinion, it was their opinion then at that point … If I was misled, I will accept,” she said.

But chairperson of the commission, retired justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, suggested that the Ipid report contained factual allegations, not legal ones, that were “very serious”.

When Behari told her that there was “no case”, why had she not asked about the facts — the alleged fraud, for example — that Ipid had raised in its report, he asked. “You just accept that without question. What did you say? And why did you not demand of him to explain, for example, those simple factual allegations?”

Mashazi eventually accepted that Behari’s view was “not helpful”.

On Tuesday, she also conceded that Mkhwanazi’s interview process for promotion to deputy police chief was irregular.

Commissioner Baloyi then asked: given that Mashazi accepted that Behari’s view on the Ipid report was “wrong”, that she accepted that Mkhwanazi’s promotion interview was irregular, did she also accept that Mkhwanazi’s acting as chief of police was also irregular?

“I accept,” said Mashazi.