Gauteng Hawks boss suspension unlawful, Parliament must take urgent steps to remove Police Minister
20 February 2015
The DA will again write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, François Beukman, intensifying our call to immediately institute a parliamentary probe into the Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko's handling of the Hawks matter. We will also urge Chairperson Beukman to place this matter at the top of the agenda at the Committee's next sitting.
This comes after the North Gauteng High Court ruled this morning that the suspension of Gauteng Hawks boss, Maj-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, was "unconstitutional".
In late December last year Minister Nhleko unlawfully suspended National Hawks boss, Anwa Dramat, and replaced him with acting boss, Berning Ntlemeza, who proceeded to suspended Sibiya pending a baseless investigation into his alleged role in the illegal rendition of Zimbabweans in 2010. Ntlemeza immediately appoint acting Gauteng Hawks boss, Elias Dlamini.
Indeed the Constitutional Court on 27 November 2014 ruled that the Minister of Police may not suspend the Head of the Hawks without first consulting Parliament.
The North Gauteng High Court also denied the Minister's leave to appeal and upheld its ruling that the Police Minister's decision to suspend Dramat was "unlawful", "invalid" and must be "set aside". The same goes for the appointment of acting Hawks boss, Berning Ntlemeza.
As such the DA contends that Ntlemeza and Dlamini's appointments were invalid from day one and they must be immediately discharged and the rightful Hawks bosses returned to work.
The DA believes that, now more than ever, Parliament must hold the Police Minister to account. He should ultimately lose his job for setting in motion a purge that he knew to be unlawful and unconstitutional from the very beginning, but did so anyway to protect Zuma Inc.
Throughout this debacle, the Police Minister has demonstrated his disregard for the rule of law and due process by suspending Dramat without consulting Parliament. Minister Nhleko also attempted to bully Parliament into rubber-stamping his illegal conduct ex post facto. When it became clear to him that the law was not on his side, he allegedly attempted to offer Dramat a R20 million golden handshake and is currently pressuring Dramat to accept an exit package.
Minister Nhleko must bear the full consequences of his actions.
Parliament needs to abandon its baseless probe into alleged ‘misconduct' by Hawks officials and diligently apply itself to the Minister's brazen disregard for law and due process.
Minister Nhleko is, quite simply, not for fit for office and Parliament must not tolerate such flagrant contempt of the law. Ultimately, Parliament must recommend that Minister Nhleko be fired.
Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, February 20 2015
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
