Former Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) head Andrea Johnson told the Madlanga commission that she did not know that investigators in her directorate had been investigating the Political Killings Task Team, despite having signed off on a summons seeking records relating to the unit.

“I can honestly not recall asking them about the PKTT,” Johnson told the commission on Tuesday.

The summons sought documents relating to the promotion of commanders and members of the PKTT, as well as records concerning the appointment of crime intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo.

Evidence leader advocate Mahlape Sello questioned why Idac had investigated the task team when the unit had not mentioned in the complaint submitted by National Coloured Congress MP __Fadiel Adams __and fell outside the directorate’s mandate.

“You were fully aware that Idac was looking into the PKTT,” Sello said. “You authorised a summons requesting records within the PKTT. On what basis and why?”

Johnson said she had only recently become aware that investigators had examined the task team.

“It is the first time I see it in the affidavit. I need to find out if they have, in fact, done the investigation,” she said.

Sello argued that the PKTT was unrelated to Adams’s complaint, which focused on alleged irregularities in crime intelligence.

Johnson said her investigation centred on promotions and appointments in Crime Intelligence, including Khumalo’s appointment.

In a separate supplementary affidavit, Adams had also alleged that money from the Secret Service account had been used to purchase resources for the PKTT.

Johnson said she had been unaware that Idac senior investigator Dylan Perumal had obtained that statement. She told the commission that it would ultimately have to determine which of the four supplementary statements taken by investigator Mantsha Rapeshu and Perumal accurately reflected Adams’s evidence.

Johnson was further questioned about why Idac had sought Khumalo’s performance review records when Adams’s original complaint had made no reference to his performance.

She reiterated that she could not recall instructing investigators to examine the PKTT and that she had only recently learnt that they had done so.

The commission also heard that Rapeshu obtained a supplementary statement from Adams, in which he alleged that former police minister Bheki Cele illegally diverted money from the Secret Service account.

In the statement, Adams alleged that Cele was involved in Khumalo’s appointment as divisional commissioner of crime intelligence without an interview process and despite Khumalo lacking senior management experience in the division.

“The former police minister was also involved in appointing General Khumalo as the divisional commissioner of crime intelligence without an interview process and without Khumalo having worked as a senior police manager in crime intelligence,” Adams stated in the supplementary affidavit.

Under questioning, Johnson conceded that allegations relating to irregular appointments, whether substantiated or not, did not fall within Idac’s statutory mandate.

Commissioner Sisi Baloyi questioned why Idac had pursued allegations against Khumalo while appearing to overlook Adams’s claims against Cele concerning the alleged misuse of Secret Service account funds, which she said fell squarely within the directorate’s mandate.

Baloyi suggested that amounted to “selective prosecution”.

Johnson said she had not been aware of the additional supplementary statements Rapeshu and Perumal had obtained from Adams and again deferred questions about the statements to the investigators.

She told the commission there had been an investigation into allegations that Cele had misused the Secret Service account but said the available evidence had been inconclusive.

“I couldn't determine from what we had whether a vehicle had, in fact, been procured for the former minister,” Johnson said. “Even if the allegations were that secret funds were taken and used for him or given to him, I couldn’t say with certainty or any clarity that it was about a vehicle.”