Ousted Hawks boss to appeal after failed job bid
THE fate of ousted Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza now lies in the hands of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) after he lost yet another legal battle to return to his office yesterday.
The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, struck Ntlemeza’s “extremely” urgent application off the roll yesterday. Judge Sheila Mphahlele found that Ntlemeza’s contention that the matter was urgent, was misguided.
Ntlemeza will, on June 2, turn to the SCA in an attempt to appeal against the finding that his appointment as head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation was unlawful, resulting in him having to vacate his office.
He, however, wanted to return to his office in the meantime. Ntlemeza also wanted to interdict Police Minister Fikile Mbalula from making public statements, which he said were embarrassing to him and subjected him to “ridicule”.
A full bench (three judges) in March this year set aside former police minister Nathi Nhleko’s appointment of Ntlemeza.
The court at the time found that two judges during earlier applications found Ntlemeza to lack honesty and integrity. In light of these findings – never taken on appeal by Ntlemeza – he was found not to be fit to head the Hawks.
Ntlemeza last month unsuccessfully applied for leave to appeal against this finding, but it was turned down by the full bench. The former top cop then indicated he would directly approach the SCA to have his name cleared.
As the notice of intention to appeal would have automatically suspended the court’s judgment pending further appeals, the Helen Suzman Foundation successfully applied for an enforcement order.
The effect of this was that the full bench order remained in place, pending the outcome of any appeals.
In his bid to return to work, Ntlemeza this week said he intended to also appeal against the enforcement order, which meant that this order was now automatically suspended.
Counsel for Mbalula argued that the full bench ruled that Ntlemeza was not fit to remain in his office for one day longer. It also ruled that its order will not be suspended until the SCA had finally pronounced on the matter.
The judge was told that she, sitting as only one judge, was not competent to overrule this.
Judge Mphahlele agreed and said it was up to the SCA to rule on whether the full bench was wrong in coming to its decision.
Ntlemeza claimed that his reputation suffered each day that he was not allowed to return to his job, but Judge Mphahlele said the interests of justice outweighed any harm Ntlemeza claimed.
She noted that his SCA hearing was in two weeks’ time and that he is currently on suspension, with full pay and benefits. The judge said Ntlemeza would thus not be prejudiced if he waited a while longer.