Durban - Police Minister Bheki Cele has defended national police commissioner, Fannie Masemola for not having been cleared when he took over the top cop job, shifting the blame to the state security agency (SSA).
It has emerged that Masemola had not been cleared, as per employment procedure, when he took over as national commissioner in March last year.
Addressing the issue yesterday, while inspecting the state of readiness for the EFF’s “national shutdown” in Phoenix, Cele said Masemola’s clearance was the responsibility of the SSA, not the police.
Cele said all appointees to senior government position including the directors general of all department were cleared by the SSA.
Cele and Masemola were inspecting the police’s preparations to enforce the law should the national shutdown violate other people’s rights on Monday.
“The same as all directors general, when they are employed, they are given a space of time to produce their final clearance certificate,” said Cele.
Cele said he had spoken to National Intelligence to fast-track the process but he would not apply time frames to when this would happen.
Masemola would not entertain the issue of his clearance. Instead, his speech was based on motivating police members to execute their jobs diligently tomorrow.
“Do your work without fear or favour, protect all the inhabitants. If there is a march, you protect the protesters and you protect all those that are not participating, that is your function.
“If there are those that get out of line, you know exactly what the law says you should do. You know how to use minimum force that you have been trained to do,” said Masemola.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE