/ 26 June 2015

Nhleko: Marikana report has ‘interesting’ recommendations

What exactly was making Nhleko sweat when he released his report on Nkandla is open to conjecture.
What exactly was making Nhleko sweat when he released his report on Nkandla is open to conjecture.

Police minister Nathi Nhleko told a media briefing on Friday that the fate of national police commissioner Riah Phiyega did not lie with him.

Nhleko was asked whether Phiyega was likely to resign or be removed from her post following recommendations that she be investigated for her role in the Marikana massacre.

In terms of the SAPS Act, the president has the power to remove the commissioner from office.

Nhleko would not be drawn into whether he thought the national police commissioner should resign over the Marikana Report on Friday.

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Nhleko said.

Asked if he thought the police should have a career policeman at the helm, or a politician, he said this was an ongoing debate.

Ultimately, he said, the police required a “good strategic manager” as the national commissioner.

Nhleko said there had been a culture of mismanagement that predated 1994. He said this in response to a question about whether the government would take responsibility for the police’s mismanagement.  

Nhleko said he had not studied the full Marikana report, but said there seemed to be “interesting” recommendations, pertaining to proposed reforms to the police’s crowd policing strategies that he said the police could “learn from”.

Nhleko was speaking at a meeting with the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) on Friday morning.

Questions over unoccupied houses

Nhleko had initially called the meeting to show editors his report on President Jacob Zuma’s home at Nkandla, which found that the so-called firepool, amphitheatre, cattle kraal and chicken run were all paid for by the state as they were, in the minister’s eyes, bona fide security features.

The report also featured video material demonstrating how the swimming pool constructed at Nkandla, at a cost of R3-million to the state, could also be used for firefighting purposes.

Nhleko said he did not know who had ordered the construction of 21 thatched roof houses, supposedly for use by SAPS members and members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).

The three-bedroomed houses were built outside the perimeter fence that encircles Zuma’s homestead, at a cost of R135-million.

Nhleko said he did not understand why this cost had been included in the total amount for the entire Nkandla project, which he said totalled about R207-million.

He said the houses are unoccupied.

He said that one of the outstanding questions in his investigation was, “Who decided to construct those houses for R135-million and lump it together with the [upgrades at the] president’s place?

He said it was not usual to have 60 policemen – the amount who could be housed in the 21 houses – around the president’s house.

“It is also not usual to have more than four members of the SANDF manning the [SANDF] clinic,” he said.

Nhleko said he was “not aware” of any government institutions currently investigating the construction of the 21 houses.

He said this was beyond the scope of his investigation, which was only supposed to investigate the amphitheatre, firepool, cattle kraal and chicken run.