Cops’ bid to stop transfers fails

THE head and deputy of the SAPS crime intelligence unit in KwaZulu-Natal have failed to prove that their transfers required the urgent intervention of the Durban Labour Court.

The court yesterday struck off the roll the urgent application seeking interim relief brought by MajorGeneral Deena Moodley and his deputy, Brigadier Sithembiso Ndlovu.

“I’m not satisfied that either of the applicants has adequately or sufficiently dealt with the reasons for urgency, why urgent relief is necessary to prevent irreparable harm and why the rules of this court could not have been complied with,” Judge David Gush said, explaining that their applications to review and set aside the decision to transfer them were pending.

Moodley and Ndlovu had each filed an application before the Labour Court, seeking to review or set aside the decision of acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi to transfer them. But they had also approached the court for urgent relief.

Ndlovu was transferred to the Inanda Crime Prevention Unit as commander and Moodley to the SAPS Pinetown cluster in what they have labelled “unlawful” transfers. Ndlovu had said in papers before court that he was transferred because he refused to implicate Moodley in any wrongdoing, and had not shown his allegiance to African bosses.

Moodley had claimed the decision to transfer him was unfair and motivated by an “ulterior purpose”, and was “punitive”.

Replace

Brigadier Thuso Tshika has been appointed to replace Moodley.

Gush said that in the affidavits opposing the urgent relief, the respondents – Mkhwanazi, provincial commissioner LieutenantGeneral Mmamonnye Ngobeni and the acting divisional commissioner of crime intelligence, Lieutenant-General Fani Masemola – had argued that Moodley and Ndlovu had not established the urgency of the interim relief.

“Both applicants are longserving career policemen who, on the face of it, are more than capable of satisfying the requirements of the posts to which they have been transferred,” Gush said.

Moodley and Ndlovu will have to wait for the original application to have their transfers set aside to be heard.

However, if successful in their main application, they could be granted costs of the urgent application.