Top cop still in hot water

22 May 2013 - 04:10 By SCHALK MOUTON
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Gauteng deputy police commissioner Major-General Phumza Gela's legal woes are not over despite the lifting of his suspension over his alleged involvement in the Guptagate scandal.

Gela is facing an application for a protection order by two of his senior officers, who accuse him of intimidation.

The SA Police Union earlier this month applied to the Labour Court for an order preventing Gela and Brigadier Vuyokazi Ndebele from intimidating two senior officers.

Gela is accused of, among other things, racially abusing the commander of the Gauteng 10111 call centre, Brigadier Shirley Venter, and of withholding the pay of another officer, Brigadier Govindsamy Mariemuthoo.

The union claims Gela racially abused Venter at a meeting in 2012 by saying that, if she wanted to be white, he would become blacker.

He is also said to have disrespectfully questioned her management style.

Mariemuthoo was removed from his post as commander of Benoni police station, on the East Rand, and his pay was withheld for a month.

The union brought an urgent application for an order that he be paid his salary. The case was settled on Thursday.

Mariemuthoo was not available for comment and Venter refused to discuss the case.

Neither Gela nor Ndebele could be reached for comment.

Gauteng police spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila refused to comment on the grounds that the matter was still in the Labour Court.

"For the record, Mariemuthoo's salary has never been stopped," said Malila.

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