Police watchdog isn’t just about McBride, says Nathi Nhleko

THE Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) is not “predicated on one man”, and will not cease to function because of the suspension of its head Robert McBride.

This was the response yesterday of Police Minister Nathi Nhleko, through spokesman Musa Zondi, to an affidavit lodged by McBride in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday in support of his request for an expedited hearing for his challenge of his suspension.

McBride said in his affidavit the Ipid was at a critical stage in a number of investigations involving high-ranking members of the police, who were suspected of “abusing their positions to protect certain criminal syndicates”.

These syndicates were making a “concerted effort” to “infiltrate, compromise and weaken the SAPS”.

McBride argued that his suspension would threaten these investigations and undermine the Ipid.

But Zondi said the “subtext” of these claims was that “Ipid only works because of McBride”.

“So a whole institution is predicated on one man? The minister thinks not,” he said.

McBride lost an earlier bid to stave off his suspension when the matter was deemed not urgent but, now that his suspension has come into effect, he is seeking to have it declared unlawful.

Nhleko has accused McBride of altering the findings of an Ipid investigation into the alleged rendition of Zimbabweans by the Hawks, in which Hawks head Anwa Dramat and his Gauteng counterpart Shadrack Sibiya were initially implicated, in order to protect the two.

The final Ipid report cleared Dramat and Sibiya, both of whom were placed on suspension. Dramat remains on extended leave after his suspension was overturned, while a court gave Sibiya the all-clear to return to work after finding his suspension irregular.

McBride has argued that Nhleko suspended him in order to prevent him from explaining the findings of the final Ipid report, so as not to interfere with his attempts to remove Dramat and Sibiya.

Dramat, in a response to Nhleko after the minister warned him of his imminent

‘Ipid is at a critical

suspension, said he was being targeted because of his involvement in certain high-profile investigations.

The turmoil in the Hawks and Ipid comes amid similar drama in the National Prosecuting Authority, whose head Mxolisi Nxasana is the subject of an inquiry into his fitness for office ordered by President Jacob Zuma.

Meanwhile, one of Nxasana’s deputies, Nomgcobo Jiba, has been summoned to appear in court on charges of fraud and perjury relating to her unlawful authorisation of charges against KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Johan Booysen.