PRETORIA, May 17 (ANA0 – The High Court in Pretoria will on Thursday pronounce judgement on the urgent application filed by disgraced former Hawks boss Berning Ntlemeza in his attempt to be allowed to return to work pending an appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
On Wednesday, after hearing opposing submissions from Ntlemeza and Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, Judge Sheila Mphahlele said she would deliver her judgement on Thursday morning.
“I am going to consider the submissions … Let me say tomorrow [Thursday] at 10 o’clock, I will be able to give my judgement. I will see you tomorrow morning,” said Mphahlele as she reserved judgement on Ntlemeza’s application.
Earlier, vehemently opposing Ntlemeza’s application to return to the helm of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, popularly known as the Hawks, Mbalula’s legal representative, Advocate Nazeer Cassim, said the disgraced senior police officer had no leg to stand on.
“The applicant is on full pay. His [SCA] appeal hearing is set down for the 2nd of June. When this application was launched, we had no knowledge of when the appeal would be heard. What they are now doing is to come here and score power politic points. The matter is going to be heard two weeks from now in the SCA. The matter will then be fully ventilated there. Until then, there is an order of court that he [Ntlemeza] can’t go back to work,” Cassim submitted.
Cassim said Mbalula had been rightly “vociferous” on the matter.
“He [Mbalula] has to be very vociferous, being the minister in charge. If a court pronounces that a teacher is a paedophile, and the court makes a finding to that effect, then there is a section in the Act which says he must come back to work pending an appeal. One can imagine how incensed the school principal is going to be, to put that same person back to deal with children,” said Cassim.
“How can my learned friend [representative for Ntlemeza, Advocate Nceba Dukada] make the submission that there is a degradation of his status if he is not back at work? He is lucky he is being paid while his appeal is pending. One thing, at best for him is to say, until my appeal is heard I am entitled to my salary. Well, he is getting his salary.”
Cassim said Ntlemeza’s submissions to court that Mbalula had confiscated his Hawks vehicle and mobile phone were insignificant.
“I don’t want to take up the court’s urgent time on the issue of a cellphone and a car. No court will entertain that. My minister is not somebody who is heartless. If he [Ntlemeza] genuinely needs a cellphone, I am ready to give him a cellphone. If that’s the issue, we can sort it out,” said Cassim.
“In public interest, this application must fail under the concept of urgency. We are paying his salary. This application must be dismissed with costs, including the cost of two counsel.”
On the other hand, Ntlemeza’s representative, Advocate Dukada told Judge Mphahlele that Mbalula had illegally and prematurely elbowed Ntlemeza out of office.
“If Your Ladyship [Judge Mphahlele ] were to strike out this application today, it would be tantamount to saying that the perpetual illegal conduct of the first respondent [Mbalula] which is occurring daily since the filing of the Supreme Court of Appeals appeal, should be condoned, swept under the carpet and nothing should be done,” Dukada argued.
“When the applicant [Ntlemeza] goes to the Supreme Court of Appeal on the 2nd of June, his appeal remedy remains unprotected. He is not in a position to go back to work because of the illegal conduct of the first respondent [Mbalula] who has refused to allow him to go back to work.”
Ntlemeza on Wednesday requested Mphahlele to bar Mbalula from blocking him from returning to work, pending the outcome of the Supreme Court of Appeal action.
Dukada argued that since Ntlemeza had filed the SCA appeal, that action automatically suspended the enforcement order of the high court which removed him from office.
“The applicant, once he has exercised his right to appeal, then the enforcement order [of the high court] is suspended until we have the outcome of that appeal,” said Dukada.
He said Mbalula had, in the meantime, apart from barring Ntlemeza from work, also “confiscated” the service vehicle and other accessories from his client who served as head of the Hawks.
“The applicant [Ntlemeza] wants this court to declare such conduct as unconstitutional. The applicant wants the court to prevent the illegal conduct of the first respondent [Mbalula],” said Dukada.
The legal counsel also told the court that the matter was urgent and Mbalula’s conduct was causing reputational damage to Ntlemeza.
“The reputational harm to the applicant [Ntlemeza] is quite pervased and it should be dealt with in favour of the applicant [Ntlemeza]. The applicant has also mentioned the conduct of the first respondent [Mbalula] on national television concerning the conduct of the applicant. These utterances need to be desisted forthwith to enable the applicant to prepare his appeal properly,” Dukada told the court.
Ntlemeza’s appointment was nullified by the High Court in Pretoria.
The court ruled that its earlier finding that Ntlemeza was not a fit and proper person to lead the Hawks should come into immediate effect even though he had appealed the ruling.
Subsequently, Mbalula withdraw the appeal lodged at the Supreme Court of Appeal against the finding that Ntlemeza’s appointment was “irrational and unlawful”.
Ntlemeza was appointed permanently to the position by former Police Minister Nathi Nhleko in September 2015, despite Judge Elias Matojane having found that the general “lacks integrity and honour” and had lied under oath.
Subsequently, Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation brought arguments before the court saying Ntlemeza was not fit and proper to hold office – the court agreed with them.
In March, the court ruled that Ntlemeza lacks the requisite honesty, integrity and conscientiousness to occupy any public office, and declared his appointment invalid and unlawful. Then police minister Nhleko appealed the ruling before Mbalula’s intervention.
– African News Agency (ANA)
