DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard hopes KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi will apologise for allegations he made about her, when he appears before parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations of corruption in the criminal justice system on Tuesday.
During his testimony at the Madlanga commission of inquiry, Mkhwanazi accused Kohler Barnard of disclosing classified crime intelligence information.
Kohler Barnard has dismissed the claims.
In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Kohler Barnard, who is a member of the ad hoc committee, said she was looking forward to hearing Mkhwanazi’s testimony.
“I’m hoping perhaps he’ll finally apologise and retract the claim he made on the initial day of the Madlanga commission, when he claimed I’d broken the law and I was a criminal and part of a criminal syndicate,” she said.
“It would be the right thing for him to apologise. He has my phone number. He could have phoned me, but he’s chosen not to do that. We’ll have to wait and see what he has to say. I’m not holding my breath for an apology.”
Mkhwanazi will make his first appearance before the committee on Tuesday. He presented his testimony at the Madlanga commission of inquiry in September.
Kohler Barnard said she expected him to provide a full statement that would offer evidence for his accusations.
She said she would not go easy on him in parliament, citing the hard time she gave him and other top police officials when he was acting national police commissioner.
“I’m never easy on people at the top,” she said.
Kohler Bernard attributed Mkhwanazi’s claims to a “grudge” he held against her from a long time ago.
“There were some issues I raised very loudly at the time. Maybe he holds a grudge. I don’t know. I don’t really care. Certainly we can’t have SA Police Service members attempting to shut down parliamentarians doing their job,” Kohler Barnard said.
“Our oath is, after all, first and foremost to the country, and asking questions about leaks from entities that appear in newspapers is something I’ve done throughout all the years I’ve served.
“Presumably there’s someone pushing him to make this an issue because, workwise, he virtually has nothing to do with the JSCI (joint standing committee on intelligence), so I don’t know that he’s come up with the accusations of his own volition.”
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