MBABANE:Assistant Superintendent Sifiso Clement Khumalo, an investigator of the Anti Corruption Commission(ACC) allegedly forged an affidavit to create an alleged corruption case against a colleague Bonginkhosi Dlamini.
It has been disclosed that,Khumalo and Chief Investigator Sipho Mthethwa allegedly attempted to fabricate a corruption case against their colleague, however, they committed a blunder by applying for a search warrant from the Magistrate Court when in fact, the Prevention of Corruption Act suggests that, the search warrant must be signed by a Judge of the High Court.
After realizing that Dlamini who is well-versed with the law as he also works as an ACC investigator, identified the blunder and challenged it through his lawyer Ben J Simelane, Assistant Superintendent Khumalo then allegedly held a meeting with Chief Investigator Sipho Mthethwa to plan how to twist the case and present it as if, the investigation was conducted by the police not the ACC to justify the application of the search warrant with the Magistrate Court.
The contents of the secret meeting where a plot to forge the affidavit and further steal some documents from Judge Zonke Magagula’s file was then leaked to this Swaziland News and as a result, this publication is in possession of two(2) affidavits allegedly signed by Assistant Superintendent Sifiso Clement Khumalo.
In the first blundered but original affidavit that was subsequently allegedly stolen inside Judge Zonke Magagula’s file,Assistant Superintendent Khumalo registered the alleged fabricated corruption case with case number E/F203/2024/ACC, E/F13/2024, this is the first affidavit proving that, the matter was investigated by the Anti Corruption Commission, Khumalo is currently on alleged one(1) year secondment with the ACC.
A secondment is a temporal transfer of an official to another position or employment, this means Assistant Superintendent Khumalo is currently an employee of the Anti Corruption Commission.
It has been disclosed that,after learning that lawyer Ben J Simelane who is representing ACC Investigator Bonginkhosi Dlamini, is challenging the search warrant on the basis that, the ACC cannot obtain same from the Magistrate Court, Khumalo then created an fraudulent affidavit with case number E/F13/2024, he slightly ‘played around’ with the last numbers of the first affidavit while removing the reference of the Anti Corruption Commission.
It has been disclosed that, this time, Khumalo presented the case as if it was investigated by the police to justify the application of the search warrant with the Magistrate Court.
Amid infighting among the investigators of the ACC, Chief Investigator Sipho Mthethwa allegedly instructed the newly seconded Khumalo to fabricate a case against Dlamini who stands accused of using the ACC powers to obtain tenders in schools.
In the alleged forged second affidavit in possession of this publication, Assistant Superintendent Khumalo changed only the case number but the font size “is completely different with no underlining at the top like the original one from the ACC”.
The ACC investigator, after allegedly stealing the court documents, was highly expected to create another file and sneak in the documents with the forged affidavit into Judge Zonke Magagula’s Chambers this week to continue with the alleged fabricated case.
Reached for comments on Monday evening, Bongkhosi Dlamini expressed shock with the new developments and how this journalist received the information, he declined to comment and referred comments to his lawyer Ben J Simelane.
“Please contact my lawyer Ben J Simelane”, he said.
But the lawyer was not immediately available for a comment when contacted on Monday evening.
ACC investigators and the police are known for fabricating evidence or creating criminal cases to arrest individuals in matters where they are either acting on instructions from those in power, or have their personal interests.
Responding to this publication on Monday evening, Assistant Superintendent Clement Sifiso Khumalo denied forging the affidavit, he asked not to comment further.
“I am not aware of disappearance of the documents in the Judge’s file and I’ve never forged an affidavit”, he said.
Jabu Phakathi, the Spokesperson of the Anti Corruption Commission declined to comment while efforts to reach to reach Chief Investigator Sipho Mthethwa proved unsuccessful at the time of compiling this report.
On another note, investigators of the ACC are at loggerheads, those who are loyal to Prime Minister(PM) Russell Mmiso Dlamini and benefiting allowances are clashing with those who are against the targeting of individuals who are enemies of the PM and his faction.
It has been disclosed that, ACC investigator Bonginkhosi Dlamini has been at loggerheads with Chief Investigator Sipho Mthethwa for sometime now, he is wanted behind bars on alleged fabricated corruption charges amid the power struggle with the law enforcement institution.
The ACC is alleged to be working towards fabricating another case against Auditor General(AG) Timothy Matsebula and Zakhele Dlamini, the Director of Funduzi Forensic Services.
On this particular cases, they are allegedly acting on the instructions issued by Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini who is at loggerheads with the AG over audit reports exposing the PM over alleged disappearance or unaccounted for public funds amounting to R210million.
Assistant Superintendent Clement Sifiso Khumalo(pic: supplied).