Daily Dispatch
Ntlemeza’s fight against the law
DISGRACED former Hawks boss Berning Ntlemeza, whose appointment a high court has set aside, has taken a defiant stance in his battle to remain in control.
A weekend newspaper reported that Ntlemeza was determined not to go without a fight and wants to stay in his position as head of the country’s elite crime fighting unit, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation.
In what could be seen as contempt of court, the ousted head has vowed to report for duty today.
It was just a week ago that Ntlemeza was removed from his post when the Pretoria High Court dismissed his application for leave to appeal a March ruling. He was ordered to immediately vacate his office.
Lieutenant-General Yolisa Matakata has since been named as the acting Hawks boss by newly appointed Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, which means that if Ntlemeza continues with his act of bravado, there will be two people pitching up for the same position this morning.
Ntlemeza’s integrity and ability to hold public office came under scrutiny when the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law applied to the high court for his appointment to be set aside.
The two bodies argued that his appointment was “unlawful, irrational, procedurally unfair and unconstitutional”.
In 2015, Ntlemeza’s reputation was dealt a significant blow when Judge Elias Matojane found that he was “dishonest” and “lacked integrity”.
The scathing judgment related to the suspension of then Gauteng Hawks head Shadrack Sibiya and his alleged role in the illegal rendition of Zimbabweans in 2010 when Ntlemeza was accused of making false statements under oath.
Yet the then Police Minister Nathi Nhleko gave Matojane’s finding short shrift by appointing Ntlemeza to the position in a full-time capacity. Nhleko has since been moved to public works in the recent cabinet reshuffle by President Jacob Zuma, but his failure to heed the court’s warning has come back to haunt him.
A full bench of the Pretoria High Court honed in on Nhleko with a stinging rebuke of his disregard of the Matojane judgment by appointing Ntlemeza, who was acting at the time. They also affirmed the 2015 judgment by Matojane.
The Pretoria High Court rebuke was quite telling when it stated in the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law application that: “The minister [Nhleko] simply brushed aside a considered opinion of a superior court. The question here is not one of discretion, but whether the person who has been described by such judicial pronouncement can be appointed in the face of such pronouncements.” It then set aside the Hawks boss’s appointment. The former police minister should be made to account for his failure to heed the court’s warning and protect the integrity of the office of the head of the Hawks.
Despite all this, Ntlemeza still feels he has a case and told the City Press that only parliament could remove him.
Not only is Ntlemeza showing Mbalula, who has made it clear he would not contemplate any court challenge on Ntlemeza’s behalf, the middle finger, he is also showing an utter disdain and contempt for the courts.
Too often in this country people in powerful positions feel they are above the law and appeal court rulings in a vain attempt to short-circuit the findings of our judiciary.
They do this in the belief that it is the taxpayer who pays and so they seem to have little remorse to fight their cases even if they are unwinnable.
This again shows us a person who, instead of upholding the rule of law, preferred rather to disregard a system he is meant to appreciate as an officer of the South African Police Services (SAPS).
Although it remains to be seen how this plays out, Ntlemeza’s continued defiance only seeks to divert attention away from the unit’s core responsibility – fighting organised crime.