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Justice DG commandeers prison guards as personal security team

Details

southafricalogoSunday Times reports that Doctor Mashabane, director-general of the department of justice & constitutional development, who was mugged while jogging outside his plush Pretoria golf estate, has been accused of taking three security guards from Pretoria’s Kgosi Mampuru prison as his personal bodyguards after the police rejected his request for close protection.

He also apparently took the guards with him on two recent trips abroad. However last week, Mashabane strongly denied that the guards went with him on the international trips and also claimed there were not three guards assigned to him, but two. He said he needed close protection because he was at the helm of a department with a R5bn procurement budget and many lucrative contracts were at stake. According to sources in the department, the bodyguards were being paid an allowance and overtime. Documents obtained by the Sunday Times indicate the overtime claims ranged between R4,000 and R25,000 a month for one guard. Claims about Mashabane’s alleged abuse of office was highlighted in a report by “concerned DOJ & CD employees” before parliament’s committee on justice & correctional services in May. The report contained allegations relating to the bodyguards’ appointment, as well as further claims. These included that Mashabane had commandeered a lift in the department’s offices and had it fitted with fingerprint-identification that allowed only himself and his bodyguards to use it. Department spokesperson Steve Mahlangu dismissed the report by “faceless” officials trying to advance “a hidden agenda”.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Belinda Pheto at Sunday Times (subscriber access only)


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