New KZN Police Commissioner Jula must not resort to the same conduct as his predecessor

30 July 2019

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the decision to remove former KZN Police Commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi from 1 August.

The announcement, which was made yesterday by the National Police Commissioner, will see Mkhwanazi return to the national offices in Pretoria.

The appointment of Western Cape police commissioner Lieutenant General Khombinkosi Elvis Jula to the province appears to be a step in the right direction. That he has spent much of his police career in this province and already has the experience of having served as a provincial commissioner is a good indication.

However, the DA sincerely hopes though that he will not resort to the same conduct as his predecessor. This includes:

- Trying to ban public representatives, including the DA, from conducting oversight visits of police stations in the province last year;

- Attempting to bar myself and former DA KZN Community Safety Spokesperson, Dr Rishigen Viranna from conducting an oversight visit at the Oribi Village SAPS garage earlier this year after it was reported that hundreds of police vehicles were sitting unused; and

- Allegedly kidnapping and illegally arrested around 50 police officers who were peacefully handing over a memorandum of demands to his office. The affected officers were allegedly unhappy over the appointment of politically connected junior staff. At the time the DA wrote to IPID to request a full investigation into these claims. To date we have not had a response.

Today, the DA calls on Police Commissioner Jula to urgently engage with KZN Community Safety MEC, Mxolisi Kaunda to speedily initiate a mediation process between SAPS officers and management so that we do not see a repeat of this last incident.

The DA looks forward to engaging with the new Police Commissioner in the interests of the safety of KZN’s people. We remain committed to playing our critical oversight role as KZN’s real opposition and will not be deterred in this.

Issued by Zwakele Mncwango, Leader of the DA in the KZN Legislature, 30 July 2019