As opposition parties and security experts lined up on Friday to demand the dismissal of suspended national police commissioner General Bheki Cele, Labour Department director-general and former ANC chief whip Nkosinathi Nhleko is being widely touted as the frontrunner to replace him.
Cele went to ground on Friday as calls for his head grew louder, following the revelations that the board of inquiry into his fitness for office had recommended he be sacked.
However, it is not yet certain that President Jacob Zuma will fire the beleaguered police chief. Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj has dismissed talk of a replacement as premature speculation, telling Weekend Argus that Zuma was still “processing” the report and would “announce his response in due course”.
Cele has also indicated he will challenge the report’s findings in court, calling the report a “crude stitch-up job”.
His spokesman, Vuyo Mkhize, said on Friday the report was littered with factual errors, could not be taken seriously, and that Cele would approach the High Court to have it set aside.
The three-member board of inquiry, headed by Judge Jake Moloi, found that Cele, as the accounting officer of the police, had “grossly misconducted himself” with regard to the procurement of the Sanlam Middestad building in Pretoria, and the Transnet building in Durban – both belonging to controversial businessman Roux Shabangu.
Shabangu said he would only comment on the report once it was officially released.
The board agreed with an earlier finding by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela that the R1.7 billion headquarters leasing deals entered into by Shabangu and former public works minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde had clearly been done to benefit Shabangu at the expense of taxpayers.
Madonsela’s report of July last year found that Cele’s involvement in the property deal was “improper, unlawful and amounted to maladministration”.
And while Madonsela concluded that Cele had not signed the final lease deal, he had initiated negotiations with Shabangu and seemed determined to secure these leases despite warnings against it.
The board of inquiry
said: “The insistence of the national commissioner on his innocence in this regard demonstrates palpably that he fails to appreciate the nature and importance of the responsibilities attached to his position, and thus the board concludes that he lacks capacity and is thus incapable of executing his official duties efficiently.
“The findings… singularly and cumulatively illustrate that the national commissioner is not fit for office,” was the board’s damning and unanimous verdict.
Political Bureau