Werksmans report wrong and rushed, says McBride

Mcbride spent a second day giving testimony on Friday.

The firm was hired by former police minister Nathi Nhleko to investigate whether McBride and two subordinates, Innocent Khuba and Mathews Sesoko, unlawfully altered a report intothe illegal deportation of Zimbabwean nationals in 2010.

According to McBride, further investigation into the rendition saga revealed that those implicated in wrongdoing, former Hawks boss Anwa Dramat and Khuba, did not commit any crime.

He also accused Werksmans of attempting to circumvent him.

"I am aware that Werksmans is an international company. It does a lot of good work and is well respect but in my view, in this instance, they got it wrong, jumped into conclusions and it was a hurried report. It appeared there was a timeline and things had to be done in a certain way," said McBride. 

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He admitted to concerns over Ipid’s independence during the Werksman investigation as a lot of the investigation was done behind his back. 

McBride said the conclusions simply did not make sense. 

"Whether the report was changed lawfully or not was irrelevant to them, whether not to have changed it would have been a bigger problem was also irrelevant to them. The fact that something was changed and from their investigation, they couldn't tell what was changed let's charge all of them. The unwritten word is, well we can't really nail McBride yet, even in our misunderstanding let's charge them all.”

The recommendations advised Nhleko to institute disciplinary action against McBride, Sesoko and Khuba.

He later laid criminal charges of fraud and defeating the ends of justice against the three based on the same report.

McBride told the commission the Werksmans report was clear that its conclusions could not be used in any litigation as it was all hearsay.

The charges were later dropped.