NPA record of decision should see Phiyega disciplined and dismissed

19 July 2015

After being granted a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application, the DA is in possession of the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) suspiciously incomplete record of decision into the matter relating to the investigation into the National Police Commissioner (NPC), Riah Phiyega. It relates to allegations that she was responsible for defeating the ends of justice by tipping off Western Cape Police Commissioner, Arno Lamoer, about an ongoing investigation against him. And it clearly shows dereliction of her duty.

This follows reports by the City Press this morning that Commissioner Phiyega should be disciplined for the NPA’s latest assertion that she was grossly negligent when not honouring the confidentiality that is expected of anyone of her station (see report).

It is alleged that General Lamoer was one part of a corrupt relationship between top police officials and a local businessman who allegedly had apparent links to the criminal “under-world”. Lamoer is also being tried for defeating the ends of justice. It was always bizarre that Mr Lamoer was being prosecuted but not Phiyega because defeating the ends of justice, in this regard, is usually done in tandem. 

The DA is still trying to obtain the rest of the NPA’s papers. In any event the record of decision explicitly states that she acted negligently and should be the subject of a disciplinary hearing. The record of decisions states that “she did not keep the confidentiality that was so obviously required of her.”

The NPA’s record of decision goes further to state “the disclosure was in dereliction of Phiyega’s duty to respect the confidence that the monitors, the investigators and the Provincial and National Heads of the DPCI (Hawks) were entitled to expect of her.”  

The NPA decided not to pursue this matter further because it couldn’t credibly establish intent which is an essential element of a crime.

This notwithstanding the NPA expressly recommended that “the dereliction of duty on the part of the National Commissioner of Police is sufficiently well-founded and on the evidence and serious to merit recommending departmental disciplinary steps…In the present matter negligence, if not gross negligence, appears.”

Yet almost a full 10 months after the NPA completed its record of decision this Inquiry has not been instituted. This is scandalous in and of itself. Ms Phiyega is clearly not fit for office and should’ve have been fired months ago.

At present Ms Phiyega is mandated to make representations, by 31 July 2015, to President Jacob Zuma- as her appointing authority- outlining her fitness for office following the release of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry that clearly implicated Ms Phiyega in the Marikana Massacre that saw the death of 44 mine workers on 16 August 2012.

This, coupled with the laundry list of failings of the South African Police Service (SAPS) under her watch, should see her discharged once and for all; never mind an Inquiry into her fitness for office because her track record is evidence enough of her unsuitability to be SA’s top cop.

The DA, ahead of Ms Phiyega’s deadline, will be making formal submissions to President Zuma motivating for immediate dismissal, in terms of section 207(1) of the Constitution, because it is crystal clear that she is not at all a fit and proper person to be the National Police Commissioner and has overseen the sharp decline of the police service.

Indeed Phiyega’s tenure as NPC has been marred by incompetence and misconduct including:

Throughout the Marikana crisis she showed her lack of knowledge of policing and failed to acknowledge the police’s responsibility in the death of 44 people, going as far as to say that they did not kill them. 

No progress has been made in addressing police brutality;

She has failed to rectify the resourcing crisis in the SAPS;

No decisive action has been taken against SAPS members found to have criminal records;

She has failed to institute a court-ordered disciplinary into disgraced Crime Intelligence head, Richard Mdluli;

Under her watch Crime Intelligence has been driven into the ground; and most recently

She has failed to enact SAHRC recommendations that would have ensured the SAPS were pre-warned about the on-going Xenophobic attacks.

Commissioner Phiyega was hired because of her much vaunted managerial skills and on that basis she should be fired for her clear lack thereof. It is obvious that she lacks the managerial skills and political will to reform South Africa’s Police Service.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, July 19 2015