Cops demand Phiyega material from media
Various newspapers have been threatened with legal action unless they hand over material related to intercepted calls involving national police commissioner Riah Phiyega, the Sunday Tribune reported.
"You are hereby demanded to provide the division: crime intelligence the original information and all copies," states an extract of a letter sent to Independent Newspapers by police and which was published by the Sunday Tribune.
Phiyega's spokesman Lt-Gen Solomon Makgale told the Sunday Tribune: "We issued the letter of demand to exercise our legal rights".
The letter, sent on behalf of crime Intelligence divisional commissioner Major-General Bongiwe Zulu, threatens legal action against all Independent Newspapers titles who reported on the matter and who do not hand over their material - which he claims they obtained unlawfully.
The letter relies on the terms of the Protection of Information Act of 1982 -- an apartheid-era law about to be repealed by the "Secrecy Bill".
Independent Newspapers' attorney Pamela Stein said the information that the police were looking for was not in their possession.
"Our client listened to a taped conversation. Our client was not provided with a copy of the contents of the tape recording in any form."
This week the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said it would investigate claims against Phiyega that she allegedly tipped off Western Cape police commissioner Lt-Gen Arno Lamoer about investigations against him.
According to reports, Phiyega told Lamoer on three occasions that she was aware he was under investigation.
The Sunday Independent reported previously that their telephone conversations had been legally recorded by crime intelligence operatives monitoring Lamoer's calls. He was allegedly associated with a Cape Town drug-dealer and well-known businessman.
-Sapa