How Zuma fired Cele
HE DUMPED HIM LIKE A HOT POTATO
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma this week dumped his embattled police commissioner Bheki Cele like a hot potato.
Sunday World can today reveal that Zuma sent a police officer on Tuesday to Cele s house in Durban
’ to deliver a letter of dismissal.
This is set to spark a showdown between Zuma and Cele s
’ ANC supporters in KwaZuluNatal.
On Monday, the KwaZuluNatal ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) had decided that its officials (led by ANC chairman Zweli Mkhize) must confront Zuma about Cele s future ”.
“’ Zuma quickly dispatched a letter of dismissal the following day in what appeared to be fancy
– footwork calculated to pre-empt Cele s supporters. ’ The letter, which was signed by Zuma, was handed to the police officers at Cele s Durban house by
’ an officer who could only go as far as the gate.
Sunday World could not establish if Cele was home at the time the letter was delivered.
Cele and Zuma finally met on Friday after Cele s request for such
’ a meeting. Sunday World could not establish the details of Friday s
’ meeting.
The ANC leadership in KwaZulu-Natal is already looking into how Cele can be accommodated into its political structures.
One option is to co-opt him into their PEC, where he remains a popular political figure. Two ANC leaders in KwaZulu-Natal, who wished not to be named, said the PEC was angry. It had only learnt about Cele s
’ pending dismissal in the media and wanted Zuma to explain what
“Cele had done ”.
Cele met several ANC regional chairmen in KwaZulu-Natal last month to explain his suspension.
He apparently told them that what was happening was a government process that will determine if he did anything wrong.
However, he is said to have denied that there was bad blood
“between him and the president ”.
He further said that if he were to fall on his sword, it would be because he signed the lease agreements, although he did not benefit financially as he does not personally know the controversial property mogul, COURT BID: Bheki Cele with President Jacob Zuma, who fired him this week.
Roux Shabangu, at all. Cele is expected to file urgent court papers in an effort to reverse the decision as soon as Zuma makes a public announcement.
Cele was suspended in October last year after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found irregularities in procurement processes in the awarding of multimillion-rand lease tenders to Shabangu.
Zuma then appointed a board of inquiry, chaired by Judge Jake Moloi, which later recommended that Cele be fired. Zuma s spokesman, Mac
’ Maharaj, yesterday said Zuma will make an announcement on the matter when he is ready to do so. Cele s spokesman Vuyo Mkhize
’ told Sunday World that Cele was
“appointed primarily on the basis of his proven service-delivery record as a political leader as well as the confidence the president had in his ability to devise strategies that would turn the SAPS into a sleek and effective crime-fighting machine ”.
By all accounts, he delivered “on this mandate. While he accepts that it is the president s prerog
’ ative to appoint and fire the national police commissioner, he also believes that nobody Judge
– Jake Moloi and President Jacob Zuma included has a right to
– make legally unsound and defamatory claims about his character and conduct,” says Mkhize. This is the reason why he will “go to court if the president upholds Judge Moloi s report.
’ His court bid will be to [clear] “his name, not to fight to hang on to his job.”