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Pretoria - Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has urged the public to download an app by well-known radio personality Tbo Touch to help with fighting crime.
News24 reported on Monday that it was alleged in court papers that Wandile Bozwana, a tender mogul and ANC benefactor from North West, who was shot dead in Pretoria in October 2015, had earlier instructed a Bloemfontein law firm to pay Thabo "Tbo Touch" Molefe an amount of R1m. The money was earmarked for Mbalula.
A reliable source told News24 that the payment was made in 2015, shortly before Mbalula and Molefe embarked on a controversial trip to Las Vegas to attend a boxing match between international superstars Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Mbalula was the minister of sport at the time of the trip.
"There are many apps. You know there is an app that we download everyday - it’s called Touch HD," Mbalula said at a briefing in Pretoria on Tuesday.
"It’s a radio station. I want you to download that app on your cellphones to fight criminality."
Mbalula later tweeted at News24 that he used the Tbo Touch app as an example, and that "no such instruction was as given [sic]".
Previously asked whether the R1m allegedly paid to Molefe was used to sponsor Mbalula’s trip in 2015, Esethu Hasane, Mbalula’s spokesperson, accused News24 of "making a lot of unfounded speculations".
According to Hasane, News24 is "try[ing] to draw a narrative that the Minister was the beneficiary of the late Mr Bozwana’s businesses and that a loan was given to them for some trip to Las Vegas..."
Such claims are "incorrect and absolute hogwash," said Hasane.
Mbalula has to date also not declared any gifts or donations that relate to the 2015 trip to Las Vegas.
Molefe and his publicist, Lulu Ndevu did not respond to News24’s queries.
