Court victory for JP Smith and Limberg: Raid deemed unlawful by High Court

The City’s mayco member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, promised in January that he would fight to clear his name after a raid at his municipal offices and on Thursday night he was successful when the Western Cape High Court declared the search unconstitutional.

In a public statement issued just after 7pm via his Facebook page, Smith who steadfastly maintained his innocence, believes the raid was a calculated smear campaign.

This he said under the backbone, that he has worked for two decades to build the City of Cape Town's Safety and Security Directorate, which increasingly supports SAPS in targeting gang and syndicate leaders.

In January provincial police cited that the raid was part of further investigations into tender fraud in the construction sector within the City of Cape Town.

Mayco member for Energy, Xanthea Limberg was also included in the raid.

Armed with court papers, the documents indicate that some of the respondents include, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, Provincial Police Commissioner, Thembisile Patekile, Carel Johannes Lourens, the Minister of Police and many others.

A confident Smith added: “Today the Western Cape High Court has issued an order declaring the raid on my office as unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid. This follows the litigation application I filed against the SAPS Commercial Crimes Unit and the National Minister of Police in April this year.

“I have steadfastly maintained my innocence since the raid on my office on January 24 and always believed this was the result of a calculated smear campaign against me.

“For nearly two decades I have worked diligently to build the Safety and Security Directorate of the City of Cape Town, to not only do our own job better, but increasingly support SAPS in doing theirs, which includes targeting the heads of criminal gangs and syndicates as opposed to only responding to street level crimes. 

“ And while Cape Town has taken steps to protect itself, I fear for other cities who have not built their own investigative capacity to defend themselves.”

He added that his force in fighting organised crime and drugs may have made him an open target.

“Our investigations have led to detecting and blocking syndicates in Cape Town which also resulted in the National Treasury blacklisting individuals and companies, barring them from obtaining government tenders across South Africa,” he stated.

“I believe this is the motivation behind the smear campaign - to hamstring the City’s investigations.

“When the City started arresting hundreds of drug dealers and gangsters with illegal firearms, it caused little interest in our activity. It was only when the impact of these investigations was felt by the heads of these syndicates, that the attacks turned personal.

“Over the years I was informed by SAPS and other agencies of several threats to my personal safety. When these did not discourage me, the attacks were turned against my reputation and that of the City.

“The same attacks were launched against the City Safety and Security Investigations Unit (SSIU) and Safety and Security Information Management Services (SSIMS) when they were labelled the “rogue unit” by the former National Police Minister Bheki Cele and some of his proxies.”

Smith did not stop there and said the trench was much deeper than what met the eye, citing politics also had a role and that he knew he was targeted.

“The recent allegations pertaining to Minister Senzo Mchunu suggest the increasing weaponisation of the criminal justice system against political opponents,” he explained.

“I purposefully did not comment on the claims made by General Mkhwanazi as I could not confidently know the facts of the matter.

“Two things, however, rang true: Firstly, that a member of the national assembly had been given confidential police documents as part of a political smear campaign.

“Secondly, the claims that Minister Mchunu had been briefed on criminal cases sounded familiar, as I know for a fact that he had been briefed on the plans to search my office.

“When you do the right thing and you know the claims are false, you cannot wonder about the motives of all those who eagerly fabricated or fanned these rumours. 

“This includes some members of the media who published dubious “analysis” pieces fanning these conspiracies. Those who thought that my departure, in any way, would stop the City’s investigative capacity, need to be disabused of this notion. 

Smith added  that the court also ordered that all devices seized be returned and the Minister will now be required to pay all legal costs.

“I would like to thank everybody who supported and believed in me. It meant more than you would know,” he ended his statement with.

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