A JAUNDICED EYE
Monday was Riah Phiyega’s last day as the National Police Commissioner. Well, sort of.
There was no goodbye office party, with coffee and cookies. There were no nostalgic farewell speeches with loyal subordinates surreptitiously knuckling away a tear.
Because Phiyega has been suspended from her job for the past 20 months, she hasn’t had the schlepp of battling through the Pretoria traffic to turn up at her Wachthuis office and actually work. Another positive for her has been that this unintended vacation has, naturally, been on full pay.
Despite the suspension, Phiyega does have some bragging rights. She is, for example, the only commissioner since George Fivaz, a career policeman appointed in 1994 by President Nelson Mandela, to complete the statutory five-year term.
Jackie Selebi, a political appointment by President Thabo Mbeki, had his office unexpectedly truncated by a 15-year jail sentence for corruption. Bheki Cele, a political appointment by President Jacob Zuma, survived barely two years before being fired after a board of inquiry into claims of corruption found him unfit for service.