Minister drawn into cop squabble
POLICE Minister Fikile Mbalula has been drawn into the fight between warring police bosses – Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) boss Robert McBride and acting SAPS head, Lieutenant- General Khomotso Phahlane.
Mbalula will be in Parliament tomorrow to deliver his maiden speech as police minister following his appointment at the end of March.
The matter is not scheduled for debate tomorrow, but the chairman of the portfolio committee on police, Francois Beukman, said he would not be surprised if the spat between the two was raised by MPs.
But the committee wanted the minister to deal with the fight between Phahlane and McBride at a separate meeting.
Beukman warned last week that the fight between Ipid and the SAPS did not augur well for the functioning of the two bodies.
He said they needed to respect the laws governing the way they worked, and their mandates to serve the nation.
He said the meeting with Mbalula would take place next month, where they hoped a solution would be found to enable the two bodies to work together.
Before the meeting with Mbalula in June, the committee wanted certain information from both Ipid and the SAPS.
“We said Ipid and SAPS must provide us with documentation within 10 days.
“We have, however, set a date of June 6 for them to meet the minister,” he said.
Beukman said it would be important to resolve the fight.
He said that following the appearance of McBride and Beukman in Parliament two weeks ago, they would now move to the next step of perusing the outstanding documents.
The plan was for Mbalula to come in at the end, when everything from Ipid and the police was with the committee.
McBride accused Phahlane of interfering in investigations against him.
He said Phahlane had brought in a team from North West to harass officials from Ipid who were investigating the acting police chief.
But this was denied by Phahlane in Parliament.
He said the unit was meant to provide protection for him after he had been attacked during a robbery in Johannesburg in June last year.
Phahlane said his life was at risk, yet Ipid had taken the matter lightly.
Ipid said Phahlane was abusing his powers by bringing in members of the police from North West to arrest and lay charges against the Ipid investigating team.