Shivambu slams Nugent for recommending ‘rogue unit’

Member of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) second in command, Floyd Shivambu has criticised retired Judge Robert Nugent for recommending the re-establishment of an investigative unit which has now come to be known as the ‘rogue unit’.

Nugent says he saw nothing rogue about the unit. He says the unit was established to deal with the illegal economic activities and is key to the efforts of SARS to arrest those who are involved in them.

The so-called rogue unit was alleged to have spied on taxpayers through the illegal procurement of surveillance equipment.

Nugent says he could not get a response from Advocate Muzi  Skhakhane and Judge Frank Kroon about why they had concluded that the unit was illegal in the first place.

Meanwhile, Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police will on Thursday discuss how to adjust its February programme to prioritise the renewal or non-renewal of the contract of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Head (IPID), Robert McBride.

This, after McBride went to court to challenge Police Minister Bheki Cele, to explain why his contract would not be renewed. McBride has argued that it is not within Cele’s powers to do so, but rather that of the committee. In a draft order handed to the High Court in Gauteng on Tuesday, the two parties agreed that Cele’s decision was not final and that the committee should either confirm or reject it.

Committee chairperson, Francois Beukman, says MPs will consider how to deal with the court order and how they will meet the courts’ stipulated deadline of February 28.

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