By Johnathan Paoli
Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) head Andrea Johnson has told the Madlanga Commission that she and several colleagues received an alleged death threat warning them to “get body bags ready” before the arrest of Crime Intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo.
Testifying on Tuesday, Johnson said the anonymous message came days after a suspicious encounter involving her and her daughter outside their home. She said further incidents later reinforced her belief that the threats were credible and had affected her entire household.
She said that she had received the death threat on her cellphone shortly before Khumalo’s arrest.
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The message read: “Mrs IDAC you and your guy Shabalala, Perumal, Padayachee and Bellochun have went too far. You going to wish you did not fuck with us. Get body bags ready.”
Evidence leader Mahlape Sello questioned Johnson about the threat and whether any attempt had been made to identify those responsible.
“This sounds like a serious threat. Did you, by you I mean IDAC, did you cause for the matter to be investigated, to get to the bottom of this threat? I do appreciate that measures have been put in place to secure your safety and the safety of your colleagues, but I’m more interested in investigating the matter and finding the source of the threat. Were such steps taken?” Sello asked.
Johnson replied that the matter was escalated to the risk and security division of the NPA, which tried to follow up on the message.
“It was one of those phones that didn’t have a registered SIM card. So it sent a message. And you couldn’t then go ahead and trace the user of the telephone,” she said.
She said investigators were later able to identify a possible source of the message, but declined to disclose details publicly because it could implicate an individual who is also a subject before the commission.
Johnson also recounted an unsettling incident involving her daughter that occurred just days before the threatening message arrived.
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“What I did not put in the affidavit is at the time it didn’t seem related. But what had happened is someone accosted my daughter and I at our gate. And we had lived there for almost 20 years. And this had happened for the first time,” she said.
Johnson said the man approached her speaking in isiZulu before switching to English when she indicated she did not understand him. He told her he wanted a lawyer. This was suspicious, she said, because the area was fully residential.
Johnson said the encounter became more suspicious when the man walked away, stood on a nearby street corner and appeared to make a phone call.
In her affidavit, Johnson said the threats had taken a heavy personal toll.
“In my long career as a prosecutor, this is the first time that I received a death threat. The NPA has put several measures in place to secure myself and other colleagues. To date there have been other incidents that have affirmed the validity of these threats, more especially to me. It has affected my entire household,” she said.
The commission continues.
