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MPs want inquiry over Phiyega support

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Parliament’s police committee wants a board of inquiry to be established to look into the actions of provincial and divisional commissioners, who openly declared their support for suspended head Riah Phiyega.

Discussing the final draft of the report into the committee’s section 201 investigation into the matter, Members of Parliament said on Wednesday that the commissioners had not been truthful in presenting the facts to them, and wanted them to face the consequences.

This comes after the Board of Commissioners issued a collective statement in August expressing “serious concern” over what they saw as “an unfair and negative attitude” towards Phiyega.

In the statement, the commissioners said they had “noticed a tendency to reduce everything, especially negative issues relating to policing, to the person of the national commissioner, as if the SAPS is a one-person show”.

The commissioners were made to retract their statement and apologise for their actions.

While the commissioners insisted that the statement was not about influencing President Jacob Zuma regarding the Farlam Commission’s findings, the committee found that this was not the truth. The Farlam Commission of Inquiry recommended that Phiyega’s fitness to hold office be investigated, following the Marikana shooting.

On Wednesday, the committee recommended that “the relevant executive authority consider appropriate steps in relation to the conduct of the two deputy national commissioners, one acting divisional commissioner and one divisional commissioner”.

It also recommended that steps be taken against police head of communications General Solly Makgale, who issued the statements on behalf of the commissioners.

Police Deputy Minister Maggie Sotyu said she heard the recommendations and the department would take appropriate steps.

The committee report was adopted on Wednesday, and would be tabled in Parliament. News24


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