Cape Town - Police Minister Bheki Cele has appointed Patrick Setshedi as the acting executive director for the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
Setshedi assumed his role on Sunday pending the permanent appointment of the head of the Ipid. He is an accountant by profession. He currently works as a senior manager within the Ipid and was until recently, the acting chief financial officer.
Following legislative prescripts, the previous acting executive director, Victor Ofentse Senna's term expired at the end of 12 months on Saturday, February 29.
IPID's acting national spokesperson Sontaga Seisa said the process to recruit and appoint a new executive director led to the request by the police ministry, to extend the deadline and the Parliament's portfolio committee on police on acceded to a two-month extension.
Cele extended his appreciation to Senna for leading the Ipid for the past 12 months, and also wished Setshedi well for the next two months.
"We need to work as a team and continuously ensure that the working environment is conducive towards enabling the Ipid to fulfill its legislative mandate in the best interests of the communities we serve," Cele said as he presented the acting executive director to the Ipid management team.
Last week Thursday, the committee had Cele to speed up the process of head-hunting and nominating a credible candidate, so that the committee and the Parliament could consider and confirm or reject the nomination.
Police Committee chairperson Tina Joemat-Pettersson said they were of the view that a fit and proper person must be appointed to "head such a critical institution", as it served as a watchdog over the police.
"The Ipid Act stipulates in Section 6(6) that the Minister must fill in a vacancy within a reasonable period of time, not exceeding one year. The contract of the former head ended on February 28, 2019, which means the year stipulated by the Act was Friday, February 28, 2020."