‘If people cannot scare you away with threats of injury or death, then their next option is to assassinate your character and destroy your career’ says Smith in an exclusive interview wherein he formally addresses the recent office raids and what he has referred to as the ‘planned smear campaign of the decade.’
In a post shared to Facebook, Smith writes ‘with all those involved in what could have been the largest, planned smear campaign of this decade, they expected me to silently shrink off into the darkness but I will not back down.’
Smith follows his declaration with the link to an exclusive interview, conducted by ENCA.
In the interview, Smith essentially argues that his hands are clean despite the recent allegations cast against him. Doubling down on this statement, Smith claims to have evidence which implicates various officials in ‘dirty tricks.’
The interview follows after the police raid of the municipal offices of the City of Cape Town and the consequential seizure of documents and other belongings.
Smith commenced the interview by stating that he had no intention of engaging with the media as he did not want to interfere in the SAPS investigation. However, he continued to say that he would not be silenced amidst being defamed following misinformation.
The first issue Smith addresses was that of the raid, stating that he did not believe it to be necessary. He then indicated that his lawyer wrote to SAPS and informed them of Smith’s willingness to cooperate with relevant authorities as needed. Smith continued on to say that the Magistrate involved in the matter was not informed of his willingness to cooperate.
Smith then alleges that the office raid was ultimately curated in order to forcefully create a ‘trial by media.’
‘I am not willing to believe that the police officials involved in this matter are bad people but I am confident that they are being put under a fair amount of political pressure by politicised senior officials within the SAPS management’ said Smith.
According to Smith, reference here is being made to a specific senior politician but he will not identify them in order to avoid creating more mischief for SAPS and to limit the interference of the media.
He further alleges that in December, he received recordings from a source, which essentially prove the attempts of third parties to launch a smear campaign against him.
‘I was standing in the way of too many things but the goal was to engage in a trial by media which would destroy my career.’
In the second leg of the interview, Smith was questioned on his affiliation with gang bosses. In response, Smith stated ‘they are terrible human beings destroying our city and ruining live and it is my mission to stop them.’
Smith then stated that he was on a mission to take down Stanfield, the 28s gang and other gang bosses in the city, commenting ‘I doubt very much that they like me.’
Expanding on the above, Smith states that he did not waste his time complaining about the national government’s failure to detect and prevent criminal syndicates from capturing the City’s procurement and supply chain processes.
‘I have worked hard over the last decade to establish investigative and crime intelligence capacities within our safety directorate despite massive opposition and it worked. We were able to detect 27 companies that Stanfield had created which were trying to capture procurement processes.’
‘Identifying these companies allowed the city manager to block them which is why the city manager is now currently under protection. The initiative consequentially cut the syndicates off from R8 billion worth of service delivery funding.’
Smith the stated that this should provide the public with an idea of the scope of the challenge being faced and highlight the extent to which individuals may be motivated to stop those trying to block the occurrence of these crimes.
He further denied having any relationship or affiliations with gangsters or shady councillors, disregarding the accusations as ‘nonsense and nonsensical.’
‘Everything that I have done has worked against the interests of Stanfield, his gang and any other gangs. My hands are clean.’
‘My track record of trying to block the interests of gang bosses cannot be questioned or second guessed’ said Smith.
The last leg of the interview, called Smith’s intel into question.
Smith stated that he has no intention of publicising his intel or revealing his source of information but confirmed that he will hand the evidence over to the correct authorities during the course of the investigation.
Smith further claimed to have undergone a lifestyle audit which verified that his financial position is above board.
The interviewer proceeded to ask Smith whether he feared for his life to which Smith responded ‘I have never been a politician who has allowed political considerations to determine my course of action. I have a strong sense of what is right and wrong and this is what guides me in each challenge I face.’
Though admitting he is confident that his name will be cleared, Smith continued to say ‘only SAPS can clear my name, all I can do is provide them with my full compliance.’
‘You cannot prove something that didn’t happen unless there are industrious fabrications and breaches of integrity involved in proceedings.’
Smith has confirmed that this interview is ‘just the beginning’ as he intends to release even more information to the public.
Also read:
JP Smith responds to fraud allegations following office raid
Picture: JP Smith / Facebook
