Deputy police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya has accused his boss, Gen Fannie Masemola, of using him as a “scapegoat” after the disbandment of the KwaZulu-Natal task team investigating high-profile political murders.
He said Masemola, who asked him to stay at home soon after the saga erupted, was hell-bent on dismissing him.
The disbandment of the team by suspended police commissioner Senzo Mchunu on December 31 is a focal point of the commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of criminal infiltration in the security cluster.
In July, KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged the team was disbanded when it was close to exposing suspects behind high-profile murders in Gauteng.
On Wednesday the high court in Pretoria will hear Sibiya’s court application against the SA Police Service (SAPS) challenging Masemola’s stay-at-home order. Masemola argued his deputy disobeyed his instructions for a gradual disbandment of the team.
In his replying affidavit Sibiya said Masemola cannot plead innocence in the disbandment decision.
“I demonstrated [that] all instructions I issued and steps I took regarding the disbandment of the task team I received from the national commissioner’s office.
“The national commissioner is thus implicated in any wrongdoing that allegedly arises from my instructions, and he is not in a position to spearhead a suspension of and investigation against me,” Sibiya’s court papers read.
The national commissioner’s answer to my explanation in the founding affidavit is less than candid, and it exposes his intentions to distance himself from the disbandment process. It reveals mala fides [intent to deceive] and ulterior motives to scapegoat and have me dismissed.
— Deputy police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya
Sibiya said Masemola cannot distance himself from the disbandment and withdrawal of dockets from the team because he implemented Mchunu’s directive and did not contest it.
Masemola, in his affidavit, conceded that though he did not agree with the decision to disband the team, he did not contest it. He said he opted for a slow breakdown of the team.
Sibiya, however, argued Masemola’s plan was not approved by Mchunu.
“The national commissioner’s answer to my explanation in the founding affidavit is less than candid, and it exposes his intentions to distance himself from the disbandment process. It reveals mala fides [intent to deceive] and ulterior motives to scapegoat and have me dismissed.”
To back up his claims that he was being used as a scapegoat, he pointed out that he issued the directives for the disbandment in March, but Masemola only acted against him in July after Mkhwanazi’s media briefing.
The fact that Masemola barred him from work four months after the disbandment, he argued, shows the national commissioner did not have a problem with the disbandment.
“I purportedly disobeyed his orders in March but he does not say why he did not take action against me. I only ever executed the instructions that were issued to me by the national commissioner from the minister,” he said.
“The belated allegation that I committed misconduct by issuing an unsanctioned instruction for the withdrawal of dockets, and recent allegation that I refused to comply with the national commissioner’s instructions, are all efforts to scapegoat me in the light of the allegations made [by Mkhwanazi].
“He [Masemola] may not try to get rid of me irregularly, as he is doing, before the commission has an opportunity to conduct its work.”
Sibiya maintained the gradual plan to disband the team was a hard option for SAPS because some cases could take 10 years to reach finality.
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