The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) has confirmed that its head, Robert McBride, would not present himself to the Hawks, despite being ordered to provide a warning statement by Monday. McBride was asked to hand over a warning statement to the Hawks as part of its investigation into him.
According to EWN reporter Clement Manyathela, the case relates to how police handled an alleged attempted murder case in Boksburg under McBride's watch as EMPD chief.
The Hawks sent a letter to McBride asking him to make the warning statement by 11am on Monday, Eyewitness News reported.
Ipid spokesperson Moses Dlamini told News24 on Monday he would be meeting McBride during the day to discuss when or if he would reply to the Hawks request.
It reported the statement was needed in relation to an attempted murder case from 2007 in Boksburg as well as a case involving a reportedly stolen BMW X5, which McBride was being investigated for. The incidents occurred during McBride's term as Ekurhuleni metro police chief.
Reports emerged that senior police and Hawks investigators have been conspiring to falsely implicate McBride in the attempted murder case.
Defeating the ends of justice
In late November, a whistleblower told Eyewitness News he was contacted by a police lieutenant colonel in 2007 to draft an affidavit to implicate McBride in the attempted murder of cash-in-transit kingpin Marco Singh.
Singh was arrested while McBride was metropolitan police chief.
The state withdrew charges against McBride and his two co-accused, former director of investigations Matthew Sesoko and former head of Ipid in Limpopo Innocent Khuba, in November.
The trio was under investigation by the Hawks' crimes against the state (Cats) unit for fraud and defeating the ends of justice in their investigation of former Hawks head Lieutenant General Anwa Dramat.
Dramat was accused of involvement in the illegal rendition of Zimbabwean nationals in 2010.
The findings contained in the last report on the matter, and which McBride signed, exonerated Dramat and differed greatly from an earlier report implicating him in the renditions.
According to a report by law firm Werksmans Attorneys, portions of statements by individuals who implicated Dramat in the illegal renditions and which appeared in the first report were left out of the second report.
McBride has maintained that the earlier report did not take all the facts into account.