MPs hail top cop suspension
‘UPSET’ PHIYEGA LED FROM PARLIAMENT
MPs across the political divide welcomed the suspension of national police commissioner Riah Phiyega soon after she was forced to step out of a parliamentary committee meeting yesterday.
In a drama-filled day, President Jacob Zuma’s announcement of Phiyega’s suspension was made while she was still briefing MPs on the SAPS annual report.
Because her suspension was immediate, she slipped out of the meeting and left the parliamentary building through a side entrance as journalists queued up to talk to her.
Phiyega looked upset as she was led away, while the man Zuma appointed to act in her position, Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane, appeared to be sending and receiving SMSes as the committee meeting continued.
Speaking later on the margins of the meeting of the portfolio committee, Phahlane did not want to discuss his appointment.
“I can’t say anything right now. I am sitting here in the meeting. Let me concentrate here. Let us get to the business of the day,” he said.
The Presidency said the suspension of Phiyega was for the duration of the board of inquiry into her fitness to hold office.
Soon after Phiyega’s departure, committee chairman Francois Beukman said he believed the president had made the right decision.
“We believe, since the president announced his decision to appoint a board of inquiry, there should be a proper process,” he said.
Beukman called on the SAPS management and ordinary police officers to support Phahlane, and to remember their “duty was to the republic” and their “loyalty to the president”.
He then gave MPs from political parties an opportunity to comment.
DA MP Zakhele Mbhele welcomed Phiyega’s suspension, saying it was important she was not in a position to influence fellow SAPS members who would be called to testify before the board of inquiry that would determine her future.
“It’s about more than just Marikana – it’s about a litany of failures and faults on the part of the suspended national police commissioner,” she said.
Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald said that while “at last the president took the right decision”, Zuma could not be absolved of responsibility for the “fiasco around the commissioner”, as he himself had appointed her.
Phahlane was the head of forensics in the SAPS before his elevation to the top job yesterday. – ANA