Police committee wants Nhleko to explain conflict with McBride
28 November 2016
Cape Town - Parliament's portfolio committee on police has summoned Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko to appear before it to explain urgent "inter-agency conflicts" between himself and Independent Police Investigative Directorate head Robert McBride.
"We need assurances that the executive is dealing with the matters at hand," committee chairperson Francois Beukman said in a statement on Monday.
"We need stability in our law enforcement agencies at all times and we cannot allow a situation where public confidence in these institutions is eroded by inter-agency conflicts."
Nhleko will appear before the committee on Wednesday.
Reports emerged on Monday that "explosive" telephone recordings suggest Nhleko and senior Hawks investigators have been conspiring to falsely implicate McBride in an attempted murder case from 2007.
A whistleblower told Eyewitness News he was contacted by a police lieutenant colonel in 2007 to draft an affidavit to implicate McBride in the attempted murder of cash-in-transit kingpin Marco Singh.
Singh was arrested while McBride was metropolitan police chief.
McBride's lawyer Jac Marais said he could not comment on the matter yet as they needed to hear the telephone recordings first.
Nhleko, SAPS officials meeting to discuss report
Nhleko and senior police colleagues, meanwhile, will meet with legal counsel on Monday to discuss the suggestions that they are behind an alleged conspiracy against McBride.
Nhleko's spokesperson Sandile Ngidi told News24 that the minister and senior colleagues would meet to discuss the matter on Monday.
"The minister will be flying to Parliament tomorrow [Tuesday], and we will have a statement prepared hopefully by then."
McBride is currently the subject of a potential Parliamentary inquiry after Nhleko submitted a letter to the portfolio committee on police requesting that his conduct be reviewed by Parliament.
Beukman told News24 the matter would only come to the committee again if the resolution was passed in the House.
This article first appeared on News24, see here.
