MATHATHA TSEDU | When serious crimes take a back seat to the ‘heebie-jeebies’

The Madlanga commission’s phrase of the week was “heebie-jeebies”. It is defined as an aura a person exudes that produces feelings of anxiety, apprehension and even depression or illness among those in that person’s proximity.

It is a dangerous aura, it seems. One that can get you investigated by the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) if you radiate it near “gorgeous” Ms Andrea Johnson, the erstwhile leader of this now inglorious institution. Cedrick Nkabinde, the former chief of staff to now-suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu, discovered this week just how dangerous it can be.

I am not even sure whether Nkabinde has ever heard of “heebie-jeebies”, what it means or how it is spelt. I am willing to bet the rand I don’t have that, like me, he rushed to Google to find out what crime he had committed to have Idac’s resources redirected his way and why investigators had fanned out to find “dirt” on him simply because he gave Johnson that feeling.

Poor Nkabinde, the man who, when appointed to be chief of staff, had no idea what the job description entailed, according to his friend Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. Mkhwanazi has let it be known that Nkabinde had turned to him to educate him about his new job.

By last year, safely ensconced in his job as gatekeeper to Mchunu, there he was that evening playing host to Johnson as she waited to see the minister. Whatever Nkabinde said, whatever his behaviour was, whatever he did, maybe even his cologne, or all of these, was seriously rubbing Johnson in a heebie-jeebie way.

Guided by that sixth sense, Johnson decided that, as she was going to be seeing the minister more frequently, Nkabinde could not continue to be the person she had to deal with every time she needed to speak to Mchunu.

He had to go. And so started an Idac investigation, with no complaint from anyone other than the woman who had felt uncomfortable at sharing space and air with Nkabinde.

For Idac to open a proper investigation, there must be a complaint, fully motivated, and the issues have to fall within the ambit of its legal prescripts or mandate. The complaint is dissected by investigators and prosecutors, who must then say yay or nay, based on the details of the complaint.

Once approved, an investigator is appointed who works with a prosecutor. There is a paper trail of requests and approvals to source documents, to interview people and issue subpoenas where there is resistance. In short, it is all legal.

Not for Nkabinde. Using her second-in-command, Matthews Sesoko, who had once fired Nkabinde at the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), dirt was easy to produce and maybe even manufacture. This would be given to Mchunu, who would then be expected to fire Nkabinde.

Until someone — perhaps feeling sorry for the poor man — told him he was being investigated. Nkabinde thought it was Sesoko at it again. Little did he know that it was maybe his breath, or his mannerisms in the presence of Maj-Gen Feroz Khan’s “dearest”, that was now about to get him fired.

Nkabinde’s case illustrates the abuse of power in institutions that are regarded as infallible guardians of our democracy. The litany of abuse of process documented by Idac prosecutor Drushantha Ramsamy that Johnson allegedly committed, in flagrant disregard of the law, indicates a leadership that had gone rogue.

Idac is not the only institution justice minister Mmamoloko Kubayi should look at. The NPA itself should also be checked, as should the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

It is this disregard for process, the need to help Mchunu “clean up SAPS, particularly crime intelligence (CI)”, that saw the entire top leadership of CI arrested and their charges now withdrawn.

It is this need to suck up to Mchunu that saw national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola lumped with people charged with corruption when his case is a human resources misdemeanour that should be dealt with through civil service rules. That case too has to fall.

Idac is not the only institution justice minister Mmamoloko Kubayi should look at. The NPA itself should also be checked, as should the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

Police minister Firoz Cachalia should look into Ipid. Why, for example, did it take four years for Ipid to charge the Ekurhuleni metro cops and SAPS officers for the murder of Emmanuel Mbense in Brakpan?

Why did it need the Madlanga commission to unlock what had until then been treated as an inquest case when Marius van der Merwe (may his soul rest in peace) deposed a statement back in 2022 stating that the then Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department deputy police chief Julius Mkhwanazi had instructed him to dump the body in a dam?

Serious matters are left to rot, while people chase illegal investigations about how somebody made them feel. As commissioner Sesi Baloyi said, what other illegal investigations were done and conclusions manufactured that we don’t know?

• Tsedu is former editor of the Sunday Times