Pretoria - Robert McBride will know by noon on Thursday whether he will remain the head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
His legal team told Judge Hans Fabricius at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that the Portfolio Committee on Police said it will issue its report at 12 on Thursday afternoon on whether McBride’s contract will be renewed or whether a new Ipid boss has been appointed.
Advocate Steven Budlender said they will be back in court at 2pm on Thursday to decide on the way forward if McBride’s contract was not extended. His present contract runs out at the end of this month.
In the event of McBride staying on as Ipid head, the issue would become moot and that would be the end of this urgent application.
The portfolio committee had been meeting this week to discuss the issue of who should be appointed as Ipid head and whether McBride’s contract should be renewed.
McBride turned to court earlier this month after Police Minister Bheki Cele informed him in January that he will not renew his contract.
The Ipid head said it was not for the minister to decide, but that the decision lay with Parliament.
He asked the court to find Cele’s decision to be unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid. The parties, however, at the time reached an agreement that the decision whether or not to renew McBride’s appointment rests with the Portfolio Committee and not with the minister.
It was further agreed that the Portfolio Committee would make its decision by February 28.
In terms of the agreement, the Portfolio Committee had to issue an affidavit on February 22 regarding its progress on taking a decision regarding the renewal of McBride’s contract.
As the committee was still in discussions regarding the issue, the affidavit was not filed. The parties were, however, back in the urgent court on Tuesday as agreed.
Judge Fabricius on Tuesday suggested that the matter stood down to Thursday, as the committee had not yet decided over who should head Ipid from next month. He said the committee’s findings will have an impact on the court proceedings.
If McBride is not retained, his legal team indicated that it would file further papers on Thursday and argue the matter further on an urgent basis.
McBride, meanwhile, seemed relaxed as he attended Tuesday’s court proceedings. He, however, did not comment on how he saw his chances.