Phiyega’s ‘eat your heart out’ SMS
SAPS provincial commissioners face an investigation for “being economical with the truth” before the parliamentary police committee as the fallout continues over their politicking by publicly backing embattled national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega.
If the police committee today decides to launch such a probe under the parliamentary rule 201, it would be an unprecedented move in pursuit of oversight in Parliament over the past 21 years.
Central is MPs’ unified sharp criticism of the provincial police commissioners straying into politics by publicly supporting Phiyega a day after she told President Jacob Zuma why she should keep her job.
This followed in the wake of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana massacre finding that she had misled it and should face a board of inquiry.
In that controversial public statement of August 1, the provincial commissioners aligned themselves with her submission to the commission.
Last week, the provincial SAPS top brass apologised to the president, MPs and the country, but instead of withdrawing their controversial statement as the committee instructed, another statement was issued to reiterate the line that MPs earlier had rejected: that the August 1 media release was merely to dispel media reports of disarray and mutiny.
Yesterday, when the provincial police commissioners were asked if they stood by their apology, or supported the subsequent backtracking statement, just four of the nine provincial police leaders unreservedly reiterated their apologies.
None of the nine provincial police bosses commented when police committee chairman Francois Beukman pointed out that their statement last week also inaccurately attributed views to the committee.
If Phiyega thought public support by the nine provincial commissioners strengthened her hand in the fight for her job, yesterday’s police committee proceedings indicated this rearguard action was backfiring.
There was no doubt that the police officers’ recalcitrance angered ANC MPs, potentially to the extent that they could call for Phiyega’s immediate suspension.
ANC MP Leonard Ramatlakane bluntly said the provincial commissioners were “economical with the facts” and that everyone knew what was really happening. “You are actually responding to the president.
“The cover for you was a newspaper article. That was a simple cover, nothing less. You don’t have to be rocket scientists to understand what is happening here,” he added.
His ANC colleague Livhuhani Mabija said: “We do not expect the manga manga of protecting your own actions”, while ANC MP Martha Mmola added that the police officers were disrespecting Parliament. “Leave the politics to the politicians,” she added.
DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard said at least three provincial police commissioners did not want to subscribe to the August 1 controversial statement. “There were figurative guns held to heads: ‘You will do this’,” she pointed out.
In a separate twist, it emerged that Phiyega sent an SMS to Kohler Barnard saying: “I am black, proud, capable and get it clear you can take nothing from me, eat your heart out. I am not made by you and cannot be undone by you. Riah Phiyega.”
The SMS, seen by The Star, was sent on Thursday after Kohler Barnard’s television interview on last week’s committee meeting.
The DA MP earlier this month called for Phiyega’s immediate suspension pending a decision by the president on whether to institute a board of inquiry, which could recommend the national commissioner’s removal from office.
According to a parliamentary reply from the presidency this week, Zuma was still applying his mind to Phiyega’s submissions to him made on July 31.
MPs’ patience was clearly running out yesterday.