By: Sello Theletsane
National police commissioner General Khehla Sitole is living on borrowed time as President Cyril Ramaphosa ponders whether to fire him or not.
He has responded to Ramaphosa’s call to provide reasons why he should not be suspended. He was served with an intention to suspend letter on September 20 and given 14 days to provide reasons why it should not happen.
Spokesperson Tyrone Seale said Ramaphosa wrote to Sitole in connection with allegations of the failure of the Commissioner to assist the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID).
“These allegations emerged publicly and became the subject of a finding by Judge Norman Davis in the Pretoria High Court. The President has indicated to the National Commissioner that the issues arising from the High Court judgment are serious,” he said.
Ramaphosa is also instituting an inquiry into his fitness to hold office.
“The President has, in terms of Section 9 of the South African Police Services Act of 1995, read with Section 8 of the same Act, 68 of 1995, deemed it appropriate at this stage to institute a board of inquiry into the National Commissioner’s alleged misconduct and fitness to hold the office of National Commissioner of Police. This is merited by the public interest in the integrity of the office of the National Commissioner,” Seale said.
Sitole and Minister of Police Bheki Cele have been at loggerheads for some time. One of the issues has been Sitole’s defiance of Cele and going against what he was instructed to do. Cele even handed Ramaphosa a dossier pushing for Sitole’s suspension.
Their fight stems from the attempted purchase by Crime Intelligence of a grabber for R45-million before the ANC’s elective conference in December 2017. The price was, however, inflated as one grabber costs typically between R10 and R20 million.
Evidence obtained by Ipid was that the money was to be used to “buy” votes at Nasrec. In a judgement delivered in the Pretoria High Court in January, Judge Norman Davis said that Sitole and Lieutenant-General Francinah Vuma, Deputy National Commissioner: Management Advisory Services, had placed the interests of the ANC ahead of those of the citizens of South Africa by refusing to cooperate with Ipid and, in so doing, had breached their duties.
