MPs quiz Nhleko on McBride run-in

BID TO IMPLICATE IPID BOSS IN MURDER Opposition queries police minister’s fitness for office.

Police Minister Nathi Nhleko will run the parliamentary gauntlet today when MPs grill him over a public spat with Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) boss Robert McBride.

Nhleko has allegedly tried again to oust McBride from office using the Hawks to implicate him a decade-old attempted murder.

Nhleko has approached parliament’s oversight committee before – to uphold his first decision to get rid of McBride – and looks set for another try to convince MPs to take his side.

Nhleko’s name has most recently been tarnished by reports that his now-girlfriend’s company benefitted from an anti-xenophobia awareness campaign contract. The payout was R30 million, despite the tender awarded being for R348 000.

A DA MP on the committee, Zak Mbhele, said the fray between McBride and Nhleko was yet another instance of putting the minster’s fitness to hold office into question. “Over the past year, evidence of this widespread disarray in our crime-fighting organisations has emerged and this should raise serious questions about Nhleko’s fitness for office.

“There have been allegations that the Hawks, under Nhleko’s severely compromised ally Berning Ntlemeza, have been interfering in Ipid investigations and are actively involved in trying to force through malicious and politically motivated prosecution of individuals not willing to get on board with state capture, such as Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan,” said Mbhele.

The police department’s credibility took a knock during the Marikana Commission of Inquiry, which recommended an inquiry into suspended national commissioner Riah Phiyega. The board of inquiry found she was not fit to hold office. –