Inside job suspected in Hawks office burglary
The burglary at the Pretoria head office of the Hawks on Wednesday morning may have been an inside job, TimesLive reports.
The burglary at the Pretoria head office of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (popularly known as the Hawks) on Wednesday morning may have been an inside job, TimesLive reports.
The publication quoted a source with the Hawks (who is not authorised to speak to the media) as saying that the break-in occurred in a highly secure area of the building.
“There is something strange about this break-in. There was no sign of forced entry. The area that was broken into is highly secure,” the source said.
The Times reports that the equipment stolen in the burglary contained information related to an investigation into the irregular appointment of a number of people to senior and administrative positions within the Hawks.
The appointments were made by the elite crime-fighting unit’s disgraced former head, Berning Ntlemeza.
Ntlemeza was relieved of his duties by Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, and is currently fighting his dismissal in the Supreme Court of Appeal, in Bloemfontein.
Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, spokesperson for the Hawks, said that an internal investigation into the appointments was in progress.
“[The investigation] was ordered by acting Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Yolisa Matakata,” Mulaudzi confirmed.
“It wasn’t only the computers taken. It was also the hard drives. There is information there that is highly sensitive about the appointments of certain people,” another source said.
“The thieves went for specific computers. They walked past numerous offices leaving behind valuable equipment and went to certain rooms where these computers were kept. If that does not speak to an inside job I don’t know what does,” another source is reported to have said.
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