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Police minister under fire over latest ‘blunder’

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 Police Minister Nathi Nhleko. Picture: Deon Raath
Police Minister Nathi Nhleko. Picture: Deon Raath

Police Minister Nathi Nhleko is becoming a regular offender of his own department’s laws, opposition parties warned.

Almost a year after Major-General Berning Ntlemeza was appointed head of the Hawks, Nhleko finally formally informed Parliament in writing this week.

The notice was tabled in Parliament yesterday. In it, Nhleko asked Parliament to condone the late notice. According to the Police Act, the minister should have informed Parliament of the appointment within 14 days.

Ntlemeza was appointed in September last year.

The police ministry’s chief of staff, Leon Mbangwa, labelled the late notice as an “oversight”.

“There was serious confusion over whether to apply the employment conditions and requirements in terms of the Police Act and if this falls under the department of public service and administration. We have now corrected the mistake.”

According to him, Ntlemeza’s appointment was announced during a press conference at Parliament last year.

Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald said Nhleko must explain.

“This means the minister once again did not comply with his own law. By asking for condonation, he is admitting fault.

“Minister Nhleko has, in the past year, made a couple of blunders in exercising his duties. Recently the Constitutional Court declared his decision to suspend Robert McBride invalid. So how can the minister expect ordinary South Africans to be law-abiding citizens if he himself is not following the law?”

Democratic Alliance MP Zak Mbhele said he suspected that the minister realised his failure on the Ntlemeza matter after he submitted a parliamentary question on Ntlemeza’s appointment.

According to Mbhele, he realised that the minister had probably not met the legal requirements of the appointment.

“It is clear the minister of police struggles to uphold his own laws.”

Francois Beukman, chairperson of the portfolio committee on police, was not immediately available for comment, but Groenewald said he would ask Nhleko about it when he appeared before the committee today.

Mabangwa decribed calls for Nhleko’s resignation as opportunistic, “because the minister is doing his job”.

There have been attempts to remove Ntlemeza from his post – earlier this year the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law challenged his suitability for the post.

Francis Antonie, director of the Foundation, said they expected to apply to the North Gauteng High Court in December to declare Ntlemeza’s appointment unlawful and irrational.

“Everything about Ntlemeza’s appointment is a problem ... a judge has called him dishonest and said he has no integrity – this makes him unsuitable for the position,” said Antonie.

It can’t be good if the country’s foremost fighter against corruption is a liar, he added.

“He should now really just resign or be sacked.” EWN reported earlier that Ntlemeza, along with former crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli, have – in an affidavit in the case of Robert McBride – been implicated in an alleged plot to remove his predecessor, former Hawks boss Anwa Dramat.

Nhleko’s official notice to Parliament followed a Constitution Court ruling that his suspension of McBride, head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, was invalid.

As head of the Hawks, Ntlemeza is also at the helm of the investigation into Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

  • Update: Nhleko was grilled in Parliament today on this issue and acknowledged this “oversight”.

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