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Johannesburg - Hawks head Lieutenant General Berning Ntlemeza could be charged with defeating the ends of justice, the National Prosecuting Authority said on Friday.
"We will know whether to prosecute or not by next week," spokesperson Luvuyo Mfaku told News24.
The NPA was now in possession of the docket against Ntlemeza after the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) concluded its investigations.
The Director of Public Prosecutions in Pretoria instructed IPID to conduct further investigations, after receiving the docket from his colleagues in Polokwane, who had decided not to prosecute.
The charges were related to a case Ntlemeza allegedly ignored when he was still Limpopo's deputy provincial police commissioner.
According to a report by the Mail & Guardian earlier this year, Lieutenant Boitumelo Ramahlaha accused Ntlemeza of defeating the ends of justice.
Ntlemeza allegedly failed to take action against a former police captain who falsified vehicle log entries and had a cellphone which was stolen during an armed robbery.
The former captain, Thomas Rallele, was based at the Polokwane police station, where Ramahlaha worked. Ramahlaha reported the matter to Ntlemeza in December 2014.
Ramahlaha claimed Ntlemeza failed to take action because his daughter Amanda was romantically linked to Rallele.
Ramahlaha opened a fraud case at the Polokwane police station in April last year. The case was closed a few months later in August, a month before Ntlemeza’s appointment as Hawks head.
'Trumped up charges'
When Ramahlaha asked the NPA about the docket, Deputy National Director of Prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba reportedly told him the North Gauteng DPP’s office had never handled his matter, the Mail & Guardian reported.
The matter had apparently never gone further than the Polokwane police station.
This led Ramahlaha to open a case of defeating the ends of justice against Ntlemeza.
On Friday, Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi told News24 that this was merely an attempt to "assassinate" Ntlemeza's character because he was serious about fighting crime.
"It means there are areas which we have touched, which we believe we were not supposed to and people now see that Ntlemeza is serious about fighting crime in this country and they are doing everything they can to have him removed."
Anyone with evidence linking Ntlemeza to any "unbecoming behaviour" could take it to the authorities.
"The General has said that he will co-operate with anyone if such evidence comes to light, but for now these are trumped up charges without any evidence," Mulaudzi said.
