Next Police Commissioner must be a fit-for-purpose career officer

Police Minister Nathi Nhleko's remarks that a new Police Commissioner doesn’t have to be a career police officer shows he has learnt nothing from the disastrous appointment of currently suspended Riah Phiyega, nor those of her two predecessors, none of whom were career police officers. This fact has severely compromised leadership competence at the helm of the SAPS to ensure that South Africa has a professional police service to protect the people.

Phiyega's appointment was sold to the South African public on the basis of her supposed managerial prowess and experience. Yet she failed to live up to this promise and failed to turn the SAPS around. Instead she is facing an inquiry into her fitness for office based on the recommendations of the Farlam Commission into her role in the Marikana massacre. 

Further to this, the Ministerial Reference Group (MRG), established by Minister Nhleko in October 2014, found Phiyega guilty of perjury, misconduct, fraud and misleading Parliament. The DA has long held that these findings, as well as numerous other transgressions, demands widening the inquiry’s terms of reference to include her entire catastrophic tenure as National Police Commissioner. The President has however denied this request.

Effective and professional policing boils down to two things: proper systems management and policing expertise. The two go hand-in-hand and you cannot have one without the other if the police are to be in optimal shape to combat crime and keep our homes and streets safe. 

The National Police Commissioner must have a firm grasp of both human resource and financial and supply chain management to prevent the wasteful spending, personnel shortages and procurement bungles that have come to characterise the SAPS. They must also have experience of the operational policing environment to avoid foolish mistakes like the previous disbandment of specialised units and erroneous tactical decisions that contributed to the Marikana massacre. 

In the face of all this, the Minister must see that the only way the SAPS will be effective in protecting the people of our country is to ensure that the next Police Commissioner has the proper experience and understanding of how the SAPS works and therefore what needs to be done to drastically improve it. 

Only then will he or she enjoy the confidence of their senior management team, rank-and-file officers and the broader public. The era of political crony appointments to Police Commissioner must end and only fit-for-purpose candidates with all the requisite competencies should be considered.

Issued by Zakhele Mbhele, DA Shadow Minister of Police, 23 November 2015