KZN police commissioner’s suspension way overdue‚ says DA

19 May 2016 - 21:46 By TMG Digital

The Democratic Alliance has welcomed the suspension of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Police Commissioner‚ Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni‚ “albeit more than a year overdue”. DA spokesman on police Zakhele Mbhele said the party would write to acting national police commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane to get his commitment “as to a date by which a fitness board of inquiry will commence‚ the timelines in this respect and to make public the terms of reference into such an inquiry”.“This is so we may satisfy ourselves that the investigation indeed takes into account all Ms Ngobeni’s transgressions‚” Mbhele said.Ngobeni’s suspension relates to her alleged links to President Jacob Zuma’s son’s friend‚ Thoshan Panday and his associates‚ who reportedly paid nearly R20‚000 for her husband’s birthday party in 2010.An affidavit filed in the Durban High Court in December 2014 by then KZN Hawks Head‚ Johan Booysen‚ cited an independent forensic audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers which showed a “possibly corrupt relationship” between Ngobeni and Panday.Following that was the institution of an IPID investigation into Ngobeni’s culpability in financial irregularities in the SAPS’s KZN Office involving R60 million‚ which the DA originally requested‚ said Mbhele.“We have no doubt that this action‚ in part‚ informed the witch-hunt against IPID Executive Director‚ Robert McBride‚” he added.Mbhele said the Ngobeni’s suspension was a laudable step towards ensuring accountability for her alleged misconduct and in so doing‚ restoring some semblance of integrity within the SAPS.“That it has taken more than a year for action to be taken after her suspected involvement in supply chain corruption in the KZN SAPS points to the depths to which accountability of high-ranking officials within our police service has sunk and protected because of their closeness to the Zuma family or President Zuma himself.“The DA has long held that the root of the crisis in our police service lies in ineffective‚ self-interested and callous SAPS senior management that has the wrong priorities‚” said Mbhele .“Our police management should be beyond reproach and set the example for ethical leadership that exemplifies the highest standards of corporate governance and policing if we are to win the war on crime that continues to affect people in every corner of South Africa.“South Africans deserve to feel safe in their own country and to have faith that the management of the SAPS are committed to the fight against crime. Unfortunately this is not the case‚” Mbhele added...

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