FORMER police minister Nkosinathi Nhleko yesterday told the Zondo Commission there was no way he could have known his chief of staff was a convicted fraudster.
He said his department didn’t look at the issue of security clearance for Leon Mbangwa because he had already been in the public service system for more than 20 years when he was recruited to the position.
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He said Mbangwa was a senior manager at the KZN legislature when he was brought in.
“There was no way, given the lateral transfer, that I’d have known about his criminal record.
“The issue about his criminal record would have been looked at if it was a new recruitment.
“This was a lateral transfer. He was already in the system. At the time I hired him I wasn’t aware of his criminal record.”
He told the commission that when the matter was raised in the media, he contacted Mbangwa, who admitted he had been arrested for identity theft and served 18 months in jail.
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During his testimony last year, former Ipid head Robert McBride alleged that Nhleko employed Mbangwa, a convicted fraudster from Zimbabwe, as his chief of staff without a security clearance.
Nhleko said after his release in 2004 Mbangwa approached the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
He was granted an order forcing the home affairs department to give him citizenship by descent. However, he said the department hadn’t been forthcoming in dealing with the issue.
“In any case, it’s absurd and lunacy at best for anyone to suggest that an African is a foreigner on African soil,” he said.
He said it was worrying for him that some state departments didn’t want to comply with court orders.
“For me, this is a political problem because if we allow a situation like this, our efforts in creating a developmental state on the basis of the rule of law is compromised,” said Nhleko.