Top cop in cahoots with ‘racist’ general
Promoted in spite of facing serious charges
GAUTENG’S police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Deliwe de Lange, has come under fire again, this time for her alleged role in the promotion of a police officer facing serious charges.
Janet Basson was promoted from brigadier to major-general on May 1 despite charges of perjury, fraud and defeating the ends of justice being opened against her a month before. The docket was with the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
This is revealed in a written reply by De Lange to Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, who was responding to questions by DA safety and security spokesperson Kate Lorimer.
Basson’s colleagues, who described her leadership as ruinous, have decried her promotion, saying she was not fit for the position and called for her removal. Since her promotion, morale is said to have hit an all-time low among her subordinates, who said she ruled with an iron fist.
In a dossier dated March 8, officers at the provincial police headquarters in Parktown characterised Basson as rude, arrogant and intimidating.
A police officer, who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisal, alleged Basson once told her subordinates that as she headed the most import component, she had the power to hire, fire, promote and transfer staff.
She told officers who did not like her authoritarian leadership they were free to leave or “go to hell”. If anyone had a problem with her, she would “make your life miserable”, the officer said.
Another police officer claimed that Basson once told a subordinate that her command of English was pathetic and that she “continues to belittle the member”. The incident had been so traumatic that the officer would “pray before entering Basson’s office”.
Basson is alleged to have also told off a colleague that “because he is Xhosa, he thinks he knows too much”.
The dossier also stated that Basson once stormed into a meeting of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) and “started intimidating members, saying she would charge them in the next five minutes” if they did not disperse. She had forgotten that permission to hold the meeting “was granted by herself ”.
“The recruitment office has become lily white since her promotion, and working overtime and being allocated a state vehicle has become the exclusive preserve of white officers. She is racist,” another officer claimed.
The officer said they had tried to bring the complaints to De Lange’s attention, “but nothing came of it because she is protecting her”.
“The morale is low among staff and this affects service delivery. The feeling is that Basson, De Lange and all their cronies must go,” said another officer.
Basson is no stranger to controversy. In 2011, she fended off calls for her axing as Northern Cape police commissioner by Cosatu, which had accused her of reversing progress within the SAPS.
Basson is viewed as very close to De Lange, who earlier this year also quashed allegations of abuse of power and state resources and of nepotism, following claims that she oversaw her children’s appointment into the police service.
Disgruntled police officers accused the provincial police boss of effectively promoting Basson with scant regard for legal appointment processes.
They said De Lange had also disregarded a dossier on their grievances against the brigadier, who served as the provincial head for personnel management before her appointment as deputy provincial commissioner for human resources, earning herself the rank of major-general.
When contacted for comment, Basson pleaded innocence, saying she was “clean”, and that the allegations against her “sound ridiculous and aren’t worth answering to”.
She denied that De Lange had influenced her promotion, saying it was in fact the national police commissioner who promoted her.
With her 33 years in the police service, Basson said she wasn’t capable of doing what she had been accused of, and she wasn’t racist.
“I have never visited her (De Lange) at her house. I don’t even know where she stays. My relationship with her is strictly professional.”
Asked if she would step down if the findings were adverse, the general said: “No, I wouldn’t resign. I’m clean.”
De Lange could not be reached for comment.