Cape Town – The advert for the position of provincial police commissioner in the Western Cape went out in the middle of August. Yet Western Cape residents will seemingly have to wait longer than anticipated for the post to be filled after it became vacant at the end of July.
Police Minister Bheki Cele has apparently stepped in and stopped the process, EWN reported, following the transfer of Khombinkosi Jula to KwaZulu-Natal.
This comes after Major-General Jeremy Vearey lodged an official complaint against possible manipulation of the shortlisting process for a provincial commissioner.
In August, Cele said: “We have to follow a process of candidates applying and interviewing them. We would love to do this in the shortest possible time, so that the Western Cape can have a permanent police commissioner.
“We want to stabilise the area and want the new commissioner to put his team together."
In his complaint to national police commissioner Khehla Sitole, the deputy national commissioner for human resource management, Bonang Mgwenya, and Western Cape acting police commissioner Sindile Mfazi, Vearey said: “I have been informed that I was not shortlisted for the post of provincial commissioner SAPS Western Cape because my qualifications were not attached to the application.
“This is false and constitutes possible manipulation of the shortlisting process either by design or negligence on the part of head office.”
Vearey said that during his meticulous submission he had his secretary and another police officer in his presence as witness to having submitted all relevant documentation.
“My application was checked and sealed in my presence, with the qualifications documents attached by both my secretary, Crystal Damons, and (a) Colonel Motaung,” said Vearey.
Following the submission, Vearey said Damons had called a Colonel Hudson to confirm receipt of the application and it was confirmed that “everything was in order’’.
It is against this backdrop that Vearey requested intervention to remedy the matter as candidates had already been informed that they have been shortlisted.