President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended having acting officials in the top hierarchy of the South African Police Service, saying though it is not ideal, he could not keep national commissioner Fannie Masemola in his role while he is facing criminal charges.
This comes after the president on Thursday announced the suspension of Masemola, who will be replaced by Lt-Gen Puleng Dimpane as the acting national commissioner.
This means there are now two acting officials in the top echelons of the police, including acting police minister Firoz Cachalia.
Cachalia has been acting in the position after Senzo Mchunu was suspended following allegations made against him by KZN provincial commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, which are being scrutinised at the Madlanga Commission.
Ramaphosa said while he acknowledged that it is not ideal to have a lot of acting officials, not replacing Masemola would have been “irresponsible”.
“You may well say we’ve got too many people acting in positions. Yes, we do, and we are going to address that issue, because there is an inherent weakness in people just continuing to act. But right now, we are dealing with a problem that has befallen us, and we must address it, and we are addressing it as effectively as possible,” he said.
“It would have been irresponsible to leave this position unfilled, but now we’ve filled the position, and the work will be done. And the good thing, of course, is that having spoken to a number of the generals in the hierarchy of the police, they will all rally behind General Dimpane, support her, and work with her. They will remain focused on the areas they are involved in.”
Masemola was charged with contravening the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) for failing to cancel Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s R360m SAPS contract before payments were made to him. By the time the contract was cancelled, Matlala’s company, Medicare24, had already been paid R50m.
Masemola appeared in court this week, where the state decided that he will appear alongside Matlala and his co-accused at the next appearance.
Matlala has been under lock and key at the Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre in Pretoria.
Masemola is facing four counts of contravening the PFMA as the accounting officer of SAPS. One of the charges he faces is that he failed to screen Medicare24 before it received the tender.
Ramaphosa said he could have opted for a board of inquiry into Masemola’s fitness to hold office, but he thought it best to allow his criminal case to be concluded.
He called in Masemola to tell him that he believed he should be on the sidelines during the trial, a decision Masemola agreed with.
“In full discussions with General Masemola, I said you need to be on the sidelines while this matter is determined by the legal process,” said Ramaphosa.
“And there would be a choice of whether we do a board of inquiry or the criminal process, and the two, obviously, are different processes, and we’ve agreed to let the criminal process get under way, and in the intervening period he is put on suspension on a cautionary basis while we get General Dimpane to act in that position.”
Dimpane has been with the police service since 2007, most recently in the role of CFO and Divisional Commissioner of Financial Management Services, where she is responsible for budget and finances across SAPS.
Before this, Dimpane was a deputy provincial commissioner in the Free State responsible for asset management.
During her appearance at parliament’s ad hoc committee, Dimpane defended the more than R430m expenditure of the Political Killing Task Team, which Mchunu unilaterally disbanded, as being a necessary cost to the police.
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