[caption id="attachment_96369" align="alignright" width="350"] Riah Phiyega‚ criticised for her conduct during the ‘Marikana massacre’‚ has been suspended by President Jacob Zuma pending a board of inquiry into her fitness to be South Africa’s top cop. File picture.[/caption]
Riah Phiyega‚ criticised for her conduct during the ‘Marikana massacre’‚ has been suspended by President Jacob Zuma pending a board of inquiry into her fitness to be South Africa’s top cop.
“In terms of section 8(3)(a) of the South African Police Service Act‚ 1995‚ the President has suspended General Phiyega as National Commissioner of the South African Police Service with immediate effect and on full pay‚” the president said in a statement.
“The suspension is to endure pending any decision that is made following upon the recommendations of the Board of Inquiry into allegations of misconduct‚ her fitness to hold office and her capacity to execute official duties efficiently.”
A Board of Inquiry into allegations of misconduct by the National Commissioner was established by President Zuma on September 22. He gave her time to motivate why she should not be suspended pending that inquiry. She responded on September 28.
Phiyega has been under fire since the police shot dead 34 miners at Marikana on August 16 2012. The Farlam commission‚ which investigated the Marikana shootings‚ recommended an inquiry into Phiyega’s fitness to hold office.
The members of the Board of Inquiry are Judge Cornelis Johannes Claasen‚ who will serve as chairperson‚ with advocates Bernard Sakhile Khuzwayo and Anusha Rawjee.
Zuma’s office said in a statement that the Board of Inquiry would inquire into whether:
- The National Commissioner acting together with other leadership of the South African Police Service or alone‚ misled the Commission by concealing that it had made the decision to implement a “tactical option”‚ taken at the National Management Forum meeting on or about 15 August 2012
- The decision taken to implement the “tactical option” ought reasonably to have foreseen the tragic and catastrophic consequences which ensued
- The remarks by the National Commissioner at the SAPS parade on 17 August 2012 would have been understood to be an unqualified endorsement of the police action and thereby having the consequence of undermining‚ frustrating or otherwise impeding the work of the Commission
- The report prepared by the National Commissioner for the President of the Republic on the 16 August 2012 and the media statement subsequently issued on 17 August 2012‚ was deliberately amended to conceal the fact that there were two shooting incidents (Scene 1 and Scene 2)‚ resulting in misleading the public that all the deaths had occurred at Scene 1 which arose out of members of SAPS having to defend themselves from an advancing mass
- The overall testimony by the National Commissioner at the Commission was in keeping with the office which she holds and the discharge of her duties commensurate therewith.
- RDM Newswire