Claims against top cop Khehla Sitole hurt police

Claims that national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khehla Sitole has hindered investigations were not only damaging to the integrity of the SA Police Service (Saps), police unions have charged it’s also crippling the already tattered Saps’ ability to fight crime.

Then president Jacob Zuma’s decision to appoint Sitole to the position in 2017, was lauded as a step in the right direction as he, unlike his predecessors, was a career police officer.

Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) warned about “worrying” revelations that the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) investigations have charged Sitole – whose term ends in July – for allegedly refusing to cooperate with two investigations.

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“The implications of such allegations, especially at the most senior level, is that it creates an impression to lower-ranking officers that since those at the top are allegedly involved in wrongdoing, it is an acceptable practice,” Popcru spokesperson Kgeilelwa Mamabolo said.

Police watchdog Ipid has laid a criminal complaint against the national police commissioner for failing to assist with the investigation into the assassination of anti-gang unit commander Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear in 2020.

It was also revealed that Saps’ top management knew Kinnear’s cell phone was being tracked two weeks before he was gunned down outside his home.

The second complaint relates to Sitole’s alleged refusal to cooperate with the investigation into the so-called “grabber” surveillance that Saps allegedly wanted to procure for R45 million from US company Brainware to influence the ANC 2017 national conference.

South Africa has had eight police commissioners since 1995, with only two serving their full term, one resigning and the rest being shown to the door.

The union said this indicated a failure to get the basics right and to ensure that ministers performed legislative roles, while commissioners performed operational roles.

Mamabolo said: “Conflict between the two usually leads to disorientation.

“Sitole’s term of office is coming to an end in July, and the question which should preoccupy us is the kind of ideal policing we need as a country, as opposed to individuals.”

The SA Police Union (Sapu) suggested a commission should be appointed to look into the Saps as the crisis had engulfed the whole organisation to the detriment of safety and security.

Spokesperson Lesiba Thobakgale said the crisis at the Saps was caused by the system of every national commissioner bringing in their own generals, and when they left those generals were disgruntled.

He said this has created cabals in the police, rendering Saps dysfunctional.

“If allegations made by Ipid about Sitole of failing to co-operate are true, the law should take its course like with anyone else.

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“But we wish to warn Ipid not to be drawn into a political circus as they allege the document was not supposed to be leaked, yet a criminal case is not private and they should provide a case number and not say it is privileged information,” Thobakgale said.

He added that President Cyril Ramaphosa should consider appointing a woman to the position when Sitole leaves, saying the fact that the first woman to hold the position, Riah Phiyega, was axed did not mean another woman could not follow in her footsteps.

Phiyega was suspended in 2015, after a recommendation of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry into the deaths of miners shot by police in Marikana, North West, in 2012.

– siphom@citizen.co.za