070709 Anwa Dramat, the head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the new crime-fighting unit known as the Hawks, which was launched to replace the Scorpions at Gallagher Estate, in Midrand, yesterday.Picture: Antoine de Ras 070709 Anwa Dramat, the head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the new crime-fighting unit known as the Hawks, which was launched to replace the Scorpions at Gallagher Estate, in Midrand, yesterday.Picture: Antoine de Ras
Siyavuya Mzantsi and Aziz Hartley
THE National Directorate of Public Prosecutions has set its sights on charging former Hawks boss Anwa Dramat and his then subordinate, Shadrack Sibiya for their alleged role in the arrest and rendition of five Zimbabweans in 2010.
The NPA has tasked police watchdog the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) with taking statements from Dramat, Sibiya and four others.
“We have not charged them formally. What happened was, the NPA said we must get warning statements from them. After that we’ll take the statements to the NPA,” Ipid spokesperson Grace Langa said last night.
Messages left for Dramat were not returned while his lawyer Sangeer Pansari said he could not confirm or deny anything.
Langa said: “We have started the process and we want to get it done as soon as possible, probably by the end of Tuesday. But remember people may be on holiday so we may have to wait until they are available.”
She said the process involved getting Dramat, Sibiya and the others to have their lawyers present when the warning statements were taken. “There is a supervisor, but to be honest I don’t know for sure,” Langa said when asked whether Ipid had assigned a team to take the statements.
NPA spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku said they would not comment on the matter. Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said: “We are very far from this matter. It is being investigated by Ipid. Our job is to focus on fighting serious crimes. We cannot investigate ourselves.”
Sibiya, a former head of the Hawks in Gauteng, was given his marching orders in September after an internal disciplinary hearing found him guilty of playing a part in the illegal rendition of Zimbabweans, and recommended that he be fired.
That same month Police Minister Nathi Nhleko announced Berning Mthandazo Ntlemeza as Dramat’s replacement, des-pite the court earlier having described him as dishonest and lacking integrity.
Nhleko suspended Dramat in December last year after a preliminary report by Ipid found he had been complicit in the illegal rendition of Zimbabweans, one of whom was later killed.
In March Dramat resigned after he was cleared by a final report and after he had successfully challenged his suspension. That same month he was reportedly offered a R3 million golden handshake and R60 000 a month until he turned 60. He was appointed head of the Hawks in 2009 and at the time was described by the ANC as a tried and tested veteran of both the Struggle and the fight against crime.
Dramat, now 46, was deputy police commissioner in the Western Cape and commanded the police’s “war room” on crime. He made his mark in crime intelligence since emerging, in the late 1990s, as a lead detective in the attempt to deal with violence, including bombings, perpetrated by People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) and in quelling gang turf battles and taxi wars in the Cape.
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