Embattled Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane was booted out as acting national police commissioner yesterday and replaced by his ranking counterpart Lesetja Mothiba.
Phahlane was given two days to provide reasons why he should not be suspended from his permanent position as the SAPS head of forensic services.
"The acting tenure of Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane came to an end on June1," the presidency said.
"The president has thanked Phahlane for the leadership of the police during his tenure.
"President Jacob Zuma has congratulated the new acting commissioner and wishes him all the success in his new responsibility," it added.
Mothiba, another lieutenant-general, was until now the police's divisional head of the management intervention unit.
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said Mothiba would act "in the interim" until a permanent commissioner was appointed, possibly by the end of August.
"I can tell you by August we should have a national police commissioner . The president will have applied his mind. He will make that decision.
"We've got no time to waste. Our people are crying for the intervention of the police. Police need to be well oiled to do their job. We want stability and that is important," said Mbalula.
Mothiba served as the Gauteng police commissioner from June 2014 to January last year.
One of the decisions he made during his tenure was to suspend the oversight functions of community policing forums - a decision that drew mass criticism from the Gauteng department of community safety.
In an interview with Radio 702 in 2014, Mothiba said: "In the long term, the people see the police in front of them and may think the police are the enemy. And the situation might build up where the police become the enemy."
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