McBride heading to court over ‘malicious prosecution’
Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) head Robert McBride will go after all those who played a role in his prosecution.
This is after Bongani Siqoko, Sunday Times editor, issued an apology on behalf of the publication on a series of false stories published in 2011, that implicated South African Revenue Service (Sars) and Hawks officials.
McBride and two of his colleagues from Ipid were charged in connection with the alleged doctoring of a report into the illegal deportation of Zimbabwean murder suspects in 2010 to absolve the former head of the Hawks, Anwa Dramat, of wrongdoing.
The charges were later withdrawn.
"It will be all people involved within the malicious prosecution, because the prosecution can be proven to be malicious. There was exculpatory evidence which existed on all the cases.
“A lot of lies were told by senior people, including (former Police) Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko and (former Hawks head) Berning Ntlemeza.
"The prosecution authority knew very well that there was no evidence against Anwat Dramat and (former Gauteng Haws head) Shadrack Sibiya. We have documents where they confirm this and yet they went ahead and prosecuted Dramat and Sibiya and on top of that they didn't prosecute us, because we included evidence which exonerated them. We probably ruffled their grounds. Probably the worst case of prosecution and conspiracy between the DPCI crimes against a state unit and certain elements within the national prosecuting authority," says MacBride.
The Sunday Times apology has drawn criticism from the public and political spheres, with people calling for more heads to roll due to the impact the false reports have had on the victims.
McBride says the falsehoods by the reporters have been strenuous on his life.
"Firstly, it managed to for a period of 18 months, disrupt and destabilise Ipid and hollow it out and force investigators to become compliant tools in the hands of politicians.
"It also caused harm to people and their families because people were dismissed suspended transferred without good cause. It was also draining on finances also because we were charged for doing our job and yet the state refused any legal fees for defending ourselves, so the harm was massive," he adds.
Two reporters, Mzilikazi Wa Afrika and Stephan Hofstatter, have since left the Sunday Times.