/ 16 April 2007

DA: Where’s the progress on McBride?

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is concerned at what it calls the lack of progress in the case of Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, it said at the weekend.

McBride was involved in a car accident in December last year and it has been alleged that he was drunk at the time. His blood was not tested on the scene, reports said.

McBride has denied being drunk on the night of the accident. He had left a metro year-end function after he played a game of football and was ”not feeling well”, but he said he had no ”personal recollection” from the time he left the function.

”I do not want to explain what happened at this stage, but alcohol has nothing to do with it,” he told the Mail & Guardian Online in January this year.

DA safety and security spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard said on Sunday that progress had not been made.

”The DA is deeply concerned about the apparent lack of progress on metro police chief Robert McBride’s case. Following the accident in December in which he rolled his car, the case has yet to make progress,” she said.

Kohler-Barnard said that following newspaper reports, the director of public prosecutions in Pretoria had still not received the docket from the investigating officer.

”On Friday, the DA made contact with the National Prosecuting Authority, who confirmed that the docket had still not been received,” she said.

Kohler-Barnard said it is important that the public be informed about the case.

”We call upon the NPA and the investigating officers to take the matter forward without further delays,” she said. — Sapa