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Mbalula-Ntlemeza 'spat' a blow to confidence in Hawks

National head of the Hawks Lt Genl. Berning Ntlemeza addressing the media at Mount Road Police station about a task team that will be formed to investigate the murder of four people at a tavern in Arcadia on Saturday evening. Pic: Eugene Coetzee. ©The Herald
National head of the Hawks Lt Genl. Berning Ntlemeza addressing the media at Mount Road Police station about a task team that will be formed to investigate the murder of four people at a tavern in Arcadia on Saturday evening. Pic: Eugene Coetzee. ©The Herald

The battle between Police Minister Fikile Mbalula and suspended Hawks head Berning Ntlemeza came to a head on Monday‚ with Mbalula taking to a conference room full of journalists to utter more than a few scathing words for Ntlemeza’s benefit.

But the spat becoming public has done little more than further break down public confidence in the policing structures‚ the Institute for Security Studies’ Gareth Newham said on Thursday.

Weighing in on the recent developments during an interview on the Hawks releasing a statement detailing the arrest of a man believed to have been planning the assassinations of several high-level politicians and prominent businesspeople on Wednesday‚ Newham called the exchanges in the media ‘unseemly’.

“It does the Hawks no favours‚ neither the public trust nor faith in these agencies. Because we are looking at individuals having a public spat and it’s incredibly unseemly‚” Newham said.

“It happens they release a statement at the end of the week after a fight between the minister of police and the head of the Hawks Berning Ntlemeza‚ and in many ways you could draw a parallel between when you appoint people who are dishonourable and dishonest in positions of importance‚ and this sort of nonsense‚” Newham continued.

“It points out the importance that our focus must move away and move beyond the drama we are seeing playing out now‚ it’s really only a sideshow between the minister and the head of the Hawks‚” he said.

“What is really important for all South Africans now is to be focused on the process for appointing the next head of the Hawks. We have professional‚ highly experienced investigators who know how to get on top of corruption.

“Are we going to see one of those people appointed? Or are we going to see another political lackey appointed who simply continues undermining these very important institutions that we rely on to fight corruption and crime?”

Newham said that if the current cabinet was at all serious about tackling corruption‚ it would implement the same National Development Plan it adopted in 2012.

“They would then establish an independent committee of people to run a transparent‚ competitive recruitment process and the minister of police would then be given an option of three highly experienced men or women whose integrity is beyond reproach to choose from‚” he explained.

Newham said it spoke to political influence in South Africa’s policing structures that Ntlemeza‚ who was labelled as dishonest by a high court judge while still the acting Hawks head‚ was ever appointed at all.

“This whole situation was completely avoidable.”

 

TMG Digital

 

 

 

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