Vearey to fight police appeal
SENIOR Western Cape police officer Jeremy Vearey believes the police management’s plan to appeal against the Labour Court’s judgment, which set aside their transfers and effective demotion, was a violation of the rules of appeal.
Vearey and Peter Jacobs challenged their transfers from the provincial office where both were deputy provincial commissioners to respectively head up the Cape Town and Wynberg police clusters last June.
Vearey was previously in charge of detectives for the province, while Jacobs headed up crime intelligence in the Western Cape.
National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that police were complying with the court order delivered by Judge Hilary Rabkin-Naicker earlier this month, but added that they had given Jacobs reasons why he shouldn’t be transferred.
“We are appealing the judgment on Vearey because he was in an acting position.
“That forms the basis of our appeal,” said Mathe.
“Any acting appointment does not create a substantive right to be appointed.
“The post in question was advertised and General Vearey duly competed for the post, but was unfortunately not the successful candidate,” said Mathe.
Vearey said he was surprised that police management were commenting on the matter when “their claim has already been rejected by the judge”.
He said police had the benefit of the whole infrastructure to wage legal warfare against Jacobs and himself, to protect their authority.
“This is a sign of high-handedness,” Vearey said.
“If they think they will intimidate us, they are mistaken.
“Jacobs and I have been tortured (by the apartheid security police), we’ve been to Robben Island…
“We are not scared of them, we are going teach them what ‘no retreat, no surrender’ means,” said Vearey.
In court, their lawyer argued that Jacobs’s replacement in 2016, Mzwandile Tiyo, did not have a matric certificate or a security clearance.
However, Mathe countered: “Documents in our possession show that General Tiyo is in possession of a matric certificate, which he obtained in 1993.
“We are also in possession of his security clearance certificate, which he obtained on 2016/12/01.
“As the SAPS, we are of the view that the major-general meets all the requirements for the position, having more than 22 years’ working experience in the service.
“All other matters are being dealt with internally because this is an issue that involves an employer and an employee,” said Mathe.