DA calls for suspension of Acting National Police Commissioner
Acting National Police Commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, must be suspended with immediate effect.
There are four reasons for this call by the Democratic Alliance (DA):
First and foremost, he confessed to a group of SAPS members on the 5th of March 2012 that he was part of a group within SAPS which had killed an innocent man and that he had refused to provide a statement to that effect. As he has claimed that he was there when someone was killed, he was therefore implicated in a cover-up. I am in possession of nine affidavits by those who were at the briefing when he made this startling admission. In these affidavits each officer expresses shock at the Acting National Police Commissioner's "admission regarding his knowledge of killing somebody". These documents will be handed over to the Public Protector for investigation.
Second, he has personally stepped in and stopped an investigation into the misappropriation of millions if not billions of rands of the Crime Intelligence Secret Fund. Questions were being asked about acquisitions by the Minister of Police and his family members, and of a Divisional Commissioner who apparently bought herself an Audi Q7 using these funds. She has not been suspended. A number of dockets relating to this investigation have now been handed back to Crime Intelligence - the very unit under investigation. It seems the Acting Police Commissioner is intent on sweeping this sorry mess under the carpet.
Third, during another briefing in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) he referred to Indian members of the SAPS as being an "Indian Mafia" that must be dispensed with. This has caused a deep racial division within the SAPS of KZN at a time when the National Commissioner is fighting for his career; and when the manner in which the R57 billion police budget is being spent, and inexplicable promotions within the service, are coming under fire in the Police Portfolio Committee in Parliament.
Finally, an exposé which revealed that 27 000 SAPS members are carrying firearms despite having failed their competency tests, has lead him to instigate a witch-hunt into who ‘leaked' this information rather than an investigation into why station heads had allowed these members to continue carrying firearms.
It is clear that the authority and credibility of the Acting National Police Commissioner have been severely compromised. He should therefore be removed from office immediately.
Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, March 15 2012
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