Zuma aims to control police, says opposition
• Opposition parties unimpressed with president’s choice of former bodyguard as acting crime-intelligence head
President Jacob Zuma was trying to capture SA’s crimefighting units by planting his own people in key units of the police, opposition parties said. Police Minister Fikile Mbalula announced on Thursday the appointment of Bhoyi Ngcobo, the president’s former bodyguard, as the acting head of crime intelligence. /
President Jacob Zuma is slowly trying to capture the country’s crime-fighting units by planting his own people in key police units, opposition parties say.
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula announced on Thursday the appointment of Bhoyi Ngcobo, a former bodyguard of the president, as the acting head of crime intelligence.
Former acting head of crime intelligence Pat Mokushane was dismissed on Monday over accusations that he had run his own business from work, helped himself to South African Police Service (SAPS) funds and got top security clearance without due vetting.
Mbalula said Ngcobo had “a wealth of policing experience and is not new within the crimeintelligence environment”.
However, MPs were not confident that Ngcobo was the best choice, with police parlia- mentary committee member for the Freedom Front Plus Petrus Groenewald saying such an appointment would not inspire the confidence of citizens.
“It is clear that Zuma still wants control over intelligence services as a whole, including SAPS. Citizens will pay the price because crime is clearly getting worse,” said Groenewald.
Ngcobo’s appointment was a sign that Zuma was doubling down on the levers of power at police agencies, he said.
“We are also waiting for a full-on appointment of a national police commissioner by the president. Pro-Zuma loyalists are being deployed and this gives the wrong signal that we are going to get a political appointment for national police commissioner,” Groenewald said.
Committee member Zakhele Mbhele of the DA said the state of affairs at the police was not likely to be improved if officers associated with Zuma were the only ones getting appointed to top positions. “Ngcobo is an example of the string of enmeshed appointments that have been made in police over the years, [that] have directly led to mismanagement and ultimately undermine the fight against crime,” said Mbhele.
Ngcobo was a former intelligence officer. In 2009, he became the team leader for Zuma’s presidential protection services, City Press reported.
He was later promoted to section head of VIP protection before being appointed national head in July 2016.
South African Policing Union general secretary Oscar Skommere said the union was trying to establish what Ngcobo’s role was in crime intelligence after he left Protection and Security Services in 2016.
It is not the first time that Ngcobo has been head of crime intelligence. He acted in this position in 2012, after the suspension of Lt-Gen Richard Mdluli in 2011. the