McBride suspension a sign of Police Minister desperate for a scapegoat
12 March 2015
The Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, has allegedly just given the Executive Director of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), Robert McBride, notice of suspension in a desperate attempt to use him as a scapegoat to legitimise his unlawful suspension of the Head of the Hawks, Anwa Dramat, just after he made moves to investigate the Nkandla scandal.
This comes after Minister Nhleko alleged, earlier this month, that McBride doctored the IPID's report into the illegal renditions of Zimbabweans in 2010 to shield the Hawks boss from any involvement in wrongdoing. He has discharged this notice of suspension without so much as a shred of prima facie evidence to support this serious claim.
The Minister has now gone too far. His desperation to absolve himself from his clearly unlawful conduct by violating a Constitutional Court order is set to cost McBride his job for discharging his mandate without fear or favour.
As such I will make every attempt to directly engage the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Francois Beukman, on this matter and urge him to act on the letter I sent to him earlier this week. Minister Nhleko is flagrantly abusing his authority over the IPID and ridding himself of anyone who refuses to bend to his political will which is to protect President Jacob Zuma and anyone who seeks to do their job independently.