MPs delay McBride contract discussions

INDEPENDENT Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) head Robert McBride’s future hangs in the balance as Parliament shifts discussions on the renewal of his contract to next week.

Police Minister Bheki Cele and McBride’s lawyers reached a settlement before the Gauteng High Court that the decision taken by Cele to not renew his contract was preliminary, and must still be confirmed by Parliament.

The portfolio committee on police decided yesterday to discuss it next week after some members requested that they be given more time to consider submissions.

Chairperson of the committee Francois Beukman said: “To ensure that the process is substantively and procedurally fair, the committee has resolved to reconvene on Monday to give MPs time to familiarise themselves with the opinions contained in all the submissions.

“Some of the documents were only received (on Thursday) night. The committee has requested further information, such as performance contracts, performance assessments and the security clearance of the current head of Ipid from the minister and the executive director by end of business today to enable the committee to make an informed decision,” said Beukman.

The committee had written to Cele to request that he provide reasons for his decision.

In his response, dated February 18, Cele said McBride was not a “fit and proper” person to continue heading Ipid.

He referred to a misconduct complaint against McBride which is under investigation by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

He also referred to a report by former Ipid investigator Cedrick Nkabinde in which it was alleged that McBride gave private investigator Paul O’Sullivan access to Ipid investigations and confidential information.

“The allegations against Mr McBride are serious and cast significant doubt on his fitness and propriety to hold office as executive director,” said Cele.

McBride however slammed the reasons advanced by Cele, saying that they were a “feeble attempt to prop up a false narrative” about him.

The DA also backed McBride, and said reasons advanced by Cele for not renewing the contract for another five years were not sufficient.

“Minister Cele has his work cut out to persuade the committee of his position, which will require cogent and substantive reasons. What we’ve heard so far is flimsy and opaque. He’s going to have to do better than that,” said DA MP Zakhele Mbhele.

“While we acknowledge that there have been allegations levelled against McBride, these allegations are as yet untested and unproven. There are no grounds to argue for chronic under-performance in Ipid under McBride,” he said.

Mbhele said there were many indicators showing improvement since 2014, when the department was in organisational “sclerosis” to now being stable, more compliant and having eliminated underspending patterns.

McBride’s contract is set to end next Thursday.

Robert McBride