Accused spy cop pleads not guilty
A former police intelligence officer accused of falsifying information to spy on two journalists and Bheki Cele denied the charges against him.
|||Johannesburg -
A former police intelligence officer accused of falsifying information to spy on two Sunday Times journalists and former national commissioner of the SAPS Bheki Cele has pleaded not guilty to charges against him.
Bongani Lawrence Cele, 49, a former captain attached to the Durban Crime Intelligence Unit, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on Friday.
He allegedly lied to a judge to get an interception warrant by matching the two journalists’ phone numbers and that of the then-national commissioner with fictional names in an affidavit under the pretence it was required for a probe into a criminal syndicate.
The monitored journalists in question were Mzilikazi wa Afrika and Stephan Hofstatter, investigative journalists for the Sunday Times.
The matter commenced as a trial-within-a-trial as Cele, through his defence attorney Zwelabantu Buthelezi, disputed the submission of statements and affidavits he had allegedly made four years prior.
“While the accused admits to having taken part in signing a warning statement on March 16, 2012 as well as an affidavit, there is a dispute between State and accused as to which statement was being referred to at the time. The accused alleges he was referring to one statement and the State is saying he was referring to another,” he said.
“We need to know which statement is being referred to in order to know which statement is being submitted into evidence to the court and be able to testify on the merits,” said Buthelezi.
The first witness, police investigator Major-General Charles Johnson, told the court the investigation started in 2011 after he was called in by the deputy national commissioner Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya and given a file containing three statements and a directive by a judge to intercept communication.
Johnson said he was also instructed to open a criminal docket. He had established that fake names were used. The matter continues on September 12.
Goitsemang.tlhabye@inl.co.za
Saturday Star