Police Minister Fikile Mbalula on Tuesday lambasted recent media reports that he was usurping the authority of the South African Police Service’s acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Lesetja Mothiba, and having certain police officers, particularly from the crime intelligence unit, report directly to him.
Mbalula said he has certain police officers reporting directly to him and that there was nothing untoward about that arrangement as he is a “hands-on minister”.
“As minister, the public expects me to know if there is domestic terrorism, or any serious threats to the state and public safety. I must know of a potential Marikana before it happens and that call should come from police. I must know if disaster is estimated at a particular place so as I may engage Cabinet and government to avert or do whatever it is we are responsible for,” Mbalula told a press briefing in Pretoria.
The minister, however, said there is an ongoing campaign to defame him. He said certain members within South Africa’s security apparatus were feeding malicious information to certain journalists as part of political agendas.
“There is a campaign by certain individuals to sidetrack and besmirch me in all manner possible, including shoddy journalistic performance with a tinge of sensationalism. Journalists are urged to be careful of information peddlers within the security environment and you should always ask why is secret information being leaked. It is disappointing to your profession when journalists are openly being used as tools by dark and rouge forces within the police who often are busy with political agendas.”
The minister said there was a lot of “rogueness” going on at the SAPS’s crime intelligence unit.
“Today I am told there is classified information that is in the hands of journalists. That tells you that we are dealing with rogueness. That is what I reminded you when I went to intervene at crime intelligence, directed by among others Parliament, that crime intelligence had become a law unto itself, and that there is a lot of rogueness going on there. I said to you, if you forgot because some of us have a memory of a rat, we forget quite quickly. I said I was going to end the picnic going on there [at crime intelligence] where things are not being directed and in accordance with the law.”
Mbalula said the parliamentary portfolio committee on police had expressed concerns over instability and crises in top police management. The committee has also made inputs and given directives in terms of SAPS employees doing business with the organization, the mis-allocation of resources and the lack of security vetting of certain officers.
“With all this being said, I as minister of police, am not a mere observer but executive authority beyond the development of policy, but also I am empowered by the Constitution to direct the successful implementation of policy,” said Mbalula.
“In terms of our law, Regulation 24 of the SAPS Act empowers the minister to make regulations in terms of the exercising of policing powers and the performance by members of their duties and functions, including commissioned officers; the recruitment, appointment, promotions and transfer of members; the training, conduct and conditions of service of members; the general management, control and maintenance of the service [SAPS]. This is my legal mandate as Minister. As it can be seen, I am not a mere observer or ceremonial character.”
– African News Agency (ANA)
