As sentencing looms for rogue Crime Intelligence head Paul Scheepers after being convicted on a laundry list of charges relating to fraud, calls have been made for Helen Zille to come clean about her links to the dirty cop. 

Recently, Scheepers was convicted by the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes court having faced charges of fraud, contraventions of the PSIRA (Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority) legislation, contravention of the RICA (Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-related Information Act) legislation and money laundering.

These included him having been in possession of illegal surveillance equipment without authority for such possession.

Former ANC MP and Western Cape Provincial Secretary, Faiez Jacobs, has called on Zille to “come clean” about her links to Scheepers, who now faces direct imprisonment. 

Similarly, former Western Cape top cop Major-General Jeremy Vearey, took a swipe at the links between Scheepers and Zille – which have until now been dismissed and deflected as her having contracted Scheepers’s business – Eagle Eye Solutions – through a limited tender as “just debugging”.

Determined to keep her alleged covert links from scrutiny, Zille at the time litigated through the Press Council of South Africa against the Cape Times about what was dubbed a  “fabricated 8-month smear campaign”, regarding her having hired Scheepers as a spy.

Enquiries to Zille were acknowledged but had not been answered by deadline. A response is expected in due course and will be updated in this article once received.

Scheepers’ private investigation company was contracted for work for the Western Cape provincial government and he was arrested following raids during May 2015 at his Southfield business premises and SAPS crime intel quarters in Bishop Lavis. 

In a social media post, Vearey lashed at Scheepers, who he said discredited the SAPS and the ANC.

Vearey said Zille believed Scheepers “b******t”  when the DA newsletter alluded to corrupt senior police. 

“By that she meant me…Before she stepped out of politics as premier, she arranged through a third party that she urgently wants to speak to me. I went to meet her after hours and I explained to her that she had been given stories about myself and Peter Jacobs which were patently false but I said to her you could have come to us yourself and we could have clarified it, but you chose to believe people like Scheepers. 

“Helen in her paranoia, not ignorance, had her theory that there was some ANC conspiracy to destabilise the DA in the province and that we were centrally involved in the security structures,” said Vearey.

At the time, the ANC accused Zille of indulging in alleged illegal action(s) and urged her to  categorically state that she did not use any taxpayer money to spy on anyone. 

This after Zille had, in a DA newsletter, showed support to Scheepers, calling for the return of his equipment seized during the police raids because it had information “asserting the involvement of high-ranking police officers in corruption, and of links between the drug trade, gangs, and politics in the Western Cape”.

Former MP Jacobs said it must be further probed on why Zille made use of counter-intelligence methods. 

“They (DA) pride themselves on transparency and being open, why can’t she give us the records of how she used public money for covert activity. Why and how did she do that? She can’t just say debugging because she then used that to get the upper hand on her own people. How much still would she have done against the opposition? She must explain because now there is a direct government relationship with this known criminal,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs highlighted “a pattern of the DA’s use of criminal cops to conduct illegal surveillance” alluding to Herman Mashaba – during his tenure as DA mayor when he allegedly appointed former Hawks Gauteng head General Shadrack Sibiya to head the City of Johannesburg’s anti-corruption unit (GFIS) in 2016. 

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said the State will ask the court to impose direct imprisonment when it argues in sentencing proceedings its case against Scheepers.

He was convicted on  fraud, contraventions of the PSIRA legislation, contravention of the RICA legislation and money laundering. 

“The court convicted Scheepers on fraud for failure to disclose police employment while providing surveillance services to Nutri Pharma Solutions, Intaka Tech, and others, infringing attorney-client privilege, acting as a private investigator/security provider without registration under the Private Security Industry Regulation Act (first conviction under PSIRA), possession of a cell phone grabber/locator without ministerial exemption (first conviction for possession of listed equipment under the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act (RICA) and use of multiple accounts to conceal R5.59million in proceeds of unlawful activities,” said Ntabazalila.

Scheepers will make his next court appearance on April 10 at the Bellville Specialised Crimes court for sentencing proceedings where parties are expected to call witnesses for arguments in mitigation and aggravation. 

chevon.booysen@inl.co.za

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