Tangeni Amupadhi
NATIONAL Police Commissioner George Fivaz’s warning this week that members of his force must shape up or ship out has caught even his most senior officers by surprise.
In inquiries to provincial police commissioners around the country, the Mail & Guardian learned that they had been informed of the shakeup at the same time as the media, despite Fivaz’s assertion that “steps were at an advanced stage and would be implemented soon”.
Fivaz warned this week that “heads are likely to roll at all levels” following a major evaluation of “performance, service and productivity” by the police service. The shakeup, he said, was imminent and no one in the service would be immune, including himself.
Fivaz’s announcement followed one by Safety and Security Minister Sidney Mufamadi, in which Mufamadi said he would hold the commissioner to a written contract spelling out crime-fighting plans. Mufamadi said if Fivaz failed to live up to expectations he could be fired.
Mufamadi’s spokesman Maxwell Mulaudzi said this week that the contract would be drafted at the end of the month. He did not say when it would be signed.
“Key indicators will be worked into the contract,” said Mulaudzi who added, “The public has been hearing about plans, but what we need is practical implementation.”
Fivaz ‘s warning has angered police unions, who claim they have been excluded from the evaluation process. And senior police at the provincial level seemed equally in the dark.
Captain Benjamin Bhembe of the Mpumalanga police said “nothing specific” has been communicated to them from the national office. He said the province received the same statement that was sent to the media. Police spokesmen from Northern Province and Northwest Province had received the same treatment.
KwaZulu-Natal police representative Bala Naidoo said he has not personally seen “any document to that effect”.
The Free State and Northern Cape police referred all questions to the national office.
Only in Gauteng did police say that Fivaz’s instructions had been communicated to them. Police spokesman Azwinndini Nengovhela said they would be implemented “with immediate effect” though he was unable to specify how.
Joseph Ngobeni, a spokesman for Fivaz, said that as the commissioner was the one who had come up with the plan, ” it is only the commissioner who can give further information”.
The Police and Prison Civil Rights Union (Popcru) accused Fivaz of bowing to outside pressure. Popcru general secretary Jacob Tsumane said the union saw the statement as an “unnecessary threat that will further demoralise the police force”.
“Until we see and are allowed to participate in drawing up such plans, we view his threats as those of a person playing to the gallery to please the public that he was fighting crime,” he said.