Why DA MP Kohler-Barnard demands an apology from Mkhwanazi over leak allegations

DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard said on Thursday KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi owed her an apology for making allegations against her in connection with classified information.

Testifying before the Ad Hoc Committee, Kohler-Barnard said Mkhwanazi’s theory centred on the fact that she was a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI).

“Once I corrected that erroneous belief, I felt he owed me an apology because you can’t leak out of a committee that does not exist.

“I was not happy that I have been labeled basically a criminal when in fact I believed I was doing my job, every MP has to do, which is an oversight role. The biggest role we play is doing oversight over entities in committees we work in. It’s our job,” she said.

Kohler-Barnard also said Mkhwanazi has not made contact with her since he made the allegations.

“He has my phone number. He could have asked before hand. He chose not to, so we do have some history but he had no intention of ever discussing it with me.”

Asked by ANC MP Khusela Sangoni-Diko about the history she referred to, Kohler-Barnard said she previously reported him to the Office of the Public Protector and called for his removal from office.

“I think he took it very personal. That is the only reason I can think of for his particular attack,” she said.

Kohler-Barnard was giving testimony after Mkhwanazi at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry and the Ad Hoc Committee accused her of taking things that belonged in JSCI and asked them through an open committee such as the Police Portfolio Committee.

Mkhwanazi was concerned that she asked parliamentary questions as an MP about procurement of Crime Intelligence properties that should have been asked in the JSCI.

Kohler-Barnard said in her affidavit Mkhwanazi had at his televised press conference accused her of being part of a criminal syndicate and reported similar allegations at the Madlanga Commission.

She noted that while he did not repeat the criminal syndicate allegations at the Ad Hoc Committee, the provincial commissioner had stated hat she ought not to have commented on the information concerned despite it already in the public domain.

In her earlier testimony, Kohler-Barnard recounted how she got to release a press statement on hotel purchase the Crime Intelligence purchased in Pretoria after a news article and a statement by ActionSA.

She said she had checked with Public Works and Infrastructure minister Dean Macpherson, who indicated there was no such building under his purview.

“I then reported this to the Inspector-General of Intelligence. I asked him to investigate the matter, which he duly did.”

Kohler-Barnard said she also requested for an investigation and was informed by a whistle-blower in February about potential corruption and wasteful expenditure in the purchase of a Durban property.

“At the time I made the press statements with the details above, I was not a member of the JSCI. The JSCI had not been even been constituted when the press statements were made.”

Kohler-Barnard said Mkhwanazi has not appeared before parliamentary committees other than the Ad Hoc Committee since he made allegations against her.

“When he came before this committee, the allegations were toned down somewhat.

“They were no longer allegations that I was part of a criminal syndicate, but he was still markedly furious.”

Kohler-Barnard insisted she never leaked information out of the JSCI.

“I want to reiterate I could not and would not in any case leak out of a closed committee such as the JSCI. It did not exist at the time and I was a member of the Police Portfolio Committee.”

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za