Not all top cops gain security clearance

Several members in the higher echelons of the SAPS have been denied security clearance certificates to operate at that level‚ while others did not bother to apply when asked to do so by their bosses.

This was disclosed by national police commissioner General Khehla Sithole and his crime intelligence chief Peter Jacobs in parliament with the police portfolio committee on Wednesday.

Jacobs told MPs that among the 33 high-ranking police lieutenant-generals‚ six were operating with expired security clearances in the current financial year.

In the rank of major-generals‚ comprising of 183 senior police officers‚ five have had their security clearance applications denied and another seven were expired‚ while five others did not file their applications as required.

Next on the chain of command‚ where 680 brigadiers call the shots‚ 13 security clearance applications were rejected and 19 more had expired‚ while 41 other senior managers did not file their applications.

A further 316 vetting applications from brigadiers were also being processed‚ said Jacobs.

Jacobs did not disclose the reasons for the declined applications – for security reasons and also because an appeal process was yet to unfold within the SAPS.

The vetting of SAPS senior managers is being conducted as part of government efforts to tackle corruption and other governance failures that have plagued the police service in the past few years.

MPs have called for disciplinary action to be taken against senior managers who ignored Sithole’s orders about applications for security clearances.

Sithole said one of the challenges in this regard was the capacity to conduct security vetting in an organisation employing around 192‚000 staff members.

The police commissioner said another problem was the fact that obtaining a security clearance certificate had not been a compulsory requirement for senior positions‚ which they would now change.

“The future we’re moving to‚ we want to link vetting with employment contracts, so that if there’s any change of the vetting status then it means we must revoke the employment contract‚” said Sithole.

Turning to lifestyle audits‚ Jacobs said these had been conducted on almost 10‚000 SAPS members. Of those who had been audited‚ he said 99.15% “have no adverse findings”‚ with only 0.85% being “flagged for further validation to determine veracity of findings”.