DA files PAIA application for IPID's probe into Dramat
08 January 2015
The DA will today file a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application to gain access to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate's (IPID) report on the probe into suspended Hawks Boss, Anwa Dramat. In terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, the Executive Director of the IPID, Mr Robert McBride, is compelled to make public the report into Dramat or outline the reasons for not making the report readily available within 30 working days from today.
The Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, contends that the said IPID report forms the basis for his decision to suspend Dramat.
In the interest of transparency and accountability it is crucial to have all the facts into the Police Minister's conduct and whether or not the Hawks Boss is implicated, by IPID's report, in any wrong doing.
The DA yesterday wrote to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Francois Beukman, requesting that he call an urgent sitting of the Police Portfolio Committee to institute an investigation into the Police Minister's conduct in suspending Dramat as the DA believes Minister Nhleko did so outside of his legal authority.
Indeed the Constitutional Court ruled in November that the Minister may not suspend the Head of the Hawks. Section 17DA was declared "inconsistent with the Constitution and declared invalid and deleted from the date of this order." The Minister may only suspend the Head of the Hawks once Parliament has been consulted and has initiated an investigation into the Hawks Boss.
Furthermore, following the suspension of Dramat, reports alleged that the acting Hawks Boss, Berning Ntlemeza, has served Gauteng Hawks Commissioner, Major General Shadrach Sibiya, and senior Gauteng Hawks official Colonel Leslie Maluleke with notices of suspension.
KZN Hawks Boss, Johan Booysen, after appearing before and being cleared by the Labour Court twice, the High Court once as well as at an internal inquiry was only recently reinstated after over two years of, what appears to be a baseless, suspension.
Parliament must arrest this purge of senior Hawks officials at the earliest available opportunity, and Minister Nhleko must be censured for any unconstitutional or illegal actions on his part.
Mr McBride must, within 30 days, make public this report into Dramat.
Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, January 8 2015
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