Chihuri escorted by SA's blue light cavalcade

Police are investigating several Johannesburg metro officers for the unauthorised use of an unmarked blue light cavalcade.

The officers were returning from escorting Zimbabwean police commissioner Augustine Chihuri to the Beit Bridge border post last week when they were detained by Polokwane police for allegedly travelling outside their jurisdiction in privately owned unmarked cars with blue lights and sirens blazing.

Controversial Johannesburg businessman Phineas Manthata was allegedly in one of the vehicles.

The police released the officers without charge despite allegedly finding a stash of cash in one car.

The SA Police Service has confirmed it has launched a "full scale investigation into the matter".

This isn't the first time Manthata - whose business fits JMPD vehicles with blue lights, sirens, radios, armour and cameras - has been caught in a blue light row.

Two years ago the Saturday Star revealed how the self-styled His Royal Highness Prince of the Royal Kingdom of Batlokwa received an unprecedented blue light escort - armed and uniformed JMPD sergeants in a patrol car with flashing lights and sirens.

At the time he said he had an arrangement with the JMPD to be given an escort if he had foreign officials coming to South Africa for business dealings.

Witnesses last week told the Saturday Star the cavalcade consisted of four cars and the JMPD officers were in full uniform, including appointment badges and licensed guns.

They were using sirens, flashing blue lights and driving in wrong lanes when they were stopped.

Joburg metro police chief Chris Ngcobo confirmed his officers were stopped by the police in Limpopo while returning from Beit Bridge.

He said he had authorised them to travel in a convoy of unmarked cars to protect Chihuri.

Limpopo police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi confirmed the Polokwane Highway Patrol stopped four vehicles with police blue lights outside the town.

"The provincial commissioner was informed and instantly dispatched senior members to the scene," he said. "Upon inspection it was established that the vehicles were being driven by JMPD members in full uniform (their identities were confirmed). A thorough search was also conducted inside the vehicles and they were found to be clean."

However, Mulaudzi said it was decided after consultation with the provincial legal services and the commissioner to dismantle the blue lights at the scene - especially since the JMPD members were outside their jurisdiction.

But Ngcobo denied the officers had violated the law.

"The information I got is that they were stopped and asked to show their documentation which they had," he said. "There is nothing wrong with our guys escorting the Zimbabwean commissioner because we have a relationship. We always escort police commissioners from other countries when they come here. In fact we did just that two weeks ago with a commissioner from Zaire (DRC)."

Ngcobo said he did not know what official business Chihuri was here to conclude, but he confirmed he had gone to see VIP cars and equipment sold by Manthata's company, Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement, which he intended to buy for the Zimbabwean police.

He said the JMPD officers were chosen over the police VIP protection services because "my guys are good drivers that I can vouch for".

Ngcobo added: "We visit Zimbabwe with our officers all the time during their police graduations and we like their methods of training."

The JMPD also said the reason their officers were driving unmarked blue light vehicles was simply because Manthata's company asked for help when there were high profile visitors in the country.

The JMPD claimed it acted within the confines of the law by allowing its officers to drive unmarked blue light vehicles belonging to a private company while in full uniform and carrying licensed firearms outside their jurisdiction.

But police members on the scene and a road safety activist told the Saturday Star this action amounted to "moonlighting with approval of the chief" and was illegal.

A senior policeman who wished not to be named said the JMPD convoy was in violation of protocols for visiting VIPs when the routes crossed provincial boundaries.

"There was no formal convoy protection for Commissioner Chihuri's visit forwarded to the SAPS either by JMPD or anyone in terms of an SAPS-approved operational plan," said the officer.

"There were also gross violations in relation to the use of blue lights, firearms, and traffic police uniform in regard to the incident."

Howard Dembovsky, chairman of the Justice Project SA, said in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act the JMPD had no jurisdiction outside its municipal boundary except in pursuit of a criminal.

"What form of emergency is there for the Zimbabwean commissioner to take a look at vehicles he intended to purchase to warrant a blue light escort?" he asked.

"Chris Ngcobo is no national commissioner of police to authorise such an escort. The officers should have been charged for committing a criminal act and he should have to account for this.

"It should be treated with the same vigour as the Gupta issue," Dembovsky added.