Top cops 'playing computer games as purge looms'

Embattled acting national police commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane is accused of purging senior SAPS managers believed to be allies of suspended police commissioner Riah Phiyega.

Disgruntled officials in the SAPS this week alleged at least five major-generals, including the chief financial officer, Lieutenant-General Avhashoni Ramikosi, have been arriving at work for months only "to play computer games".

Phahlane has apparently sidelined them and refused to involve them in the operations of the police service.

Ironically, Phiyega was accused of purging those who worked closely with her predecessor Bheki Cele when she took over in 2012.

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Two other majors-general, in the communications and marketing department of the SAPS, Vuyisile Ngesi and Oniccah Seemise, have taken Phahlane to the Labour Court after he served them with notices to terminate their permanent contracts late last year.

He claimed they were poor performers whose positions had become redundant after the adoption of a new management structure.

The notices of termination also stated that their "skill profiles" did not allow for them to be redeployed elsewhere within the SAPS despite having served at management level for more than 10 years.

Ngesi has a national diploma in journalism and has been a senior manager in various government departments since 2004. Seemise has a BTech degree in marketing and has held senior positions at parastatals such as arms manufacturer Denel and other departments.

"Your alternative placement in the service has been considered, but unfortunately your skills profile does not meet the requirements of any existing vacant post at that level," says Phahlane in his termination notice.

In court papers filed in the Labour Court, Ngesi alleges that Phahlane had followed no process in terms of labour laws to determine the redundancy of their positions.

Ngesi also argues their positions formed part of a management structure that was presented to and adopted by parliament's portfolio committee on police last year and they had passed performance assessments since joining the SAPS in May 2014.

The Labour Court has ordered the parties to negotiate a settlement agreement in terms of the Labour Relations Act.

Ngesi, 39, and Seemise, 41, have offered to leave the SAPS but only if Phahlane agrees to pay them out until their age of retirement - which would mean about R20-million each.

block_quotes_start It's a norm in the police, if they don't want want you they purge... that's not correct                                   

But Phahlane has rejected the proposal, offering to pay Ngesi and Seemise only what is due in their pension funds, amounting to just more than R1-million each.

The matter is now likely to end up in the high court.

Ngesi and Seemise have refused to speak on the matter, referring requests for comment to their lawyer.

Ramikosi has also declined to comment on the matter.

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Mpho Kwinika, president of the South African Police Union, said it was a matter of concern that the culture of purging was continuing unabated at the SAPS. He also warned the matter might cost the SAPS a lot of money unnecessarily.

"If the general is doing it he should stop it. Members are crying every day and what is worse is to bring in people who have no experience at all.

"Day in and out, we've got such things happening ... they even purge a colonel. It's a norm in the police, if they don't want you they purge and that's not correct," said Kwinika.

Phahlane's spokeswoman, Brigadier Sally de Beer, denied that members were being purged, saying all staffing issues were " dealt with within the confines of the governing prescripts and the regulatory framework".

But those with intimate knowledge of the matter said Phahlane was sidelining and terminating the services of those seen as being too close to the suspended Phiyega.

"We're asking ourselves why this so-called restructuring is targeting only those who joined SAPS under Riah Phiyega," said an official, who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation.