The Madlanga Commission has heard that the Investigative Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) operational manual was an official policy document and not merely a draft, as was earlier suggested by former IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson in her testimony to the commission.
This emerged during the testimony of IDAC Head of Investigations and Operations, Matthews Sesoko.
He has told the Commission that both he and Johnson approved the handbook.
“I emphasise the intake and case selection process, case selection stage of the process because it is deliberately multi-layered and collective. Its stated objective is that case selection is transparent, objective, auditable and defensible and that it cannot be manipulated.”
“There is, however, a further and equally important objective to insulate ID from any allegation that IDAC is targeting particular persons or picking or declining cases without proper basis,” explains Sisoko.
Meanwhile, the Commission has also heard that the Section 27 investigation authorisation in the Crime Intelligence matter was not discussed with Sesoko.
Sesoko says he was not consulted about the Section 27 authorisation despite being the head of investigations.
He adds that he was unaware of any policy allowing senior investigators to be excluded from the initial stages of an investigation because a matter was considered “simple”, contrary to the evidence previously given by Johnson.
Sesoko was responding to a question from the Commission’s chairperson, Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
Justice Madlanga: “Are you aware of any instances, or rather how should I put it, are you aware that the fact that a matter was simple, whatever that means, was a factor or a criterion that could be used not to involve other people at the initial stages of a matter or of an intake?”
Sisoko: “I’m not aware of any except for that specific matter.”
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