/ 28 February 2019

MPs recommend that McBride’s Ipid contract should not be renewed

Robert McBride.
Robert McBride. (Stringer/AFP/Getty Images)

The portfolio committee on police on Thursday recommended that Robert McBride’s contract as the head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) should not be renewed. 

The committee has deliberated on the matter since Monday, with clear partisan lines between the ANC and Democratic Alliance (DA) emerging.

When it came to the adoption and recommendation of the report on Thursday afternoon, the DA’s Zakhele Mbhele and Dianne Kohler Barnard were not present in the committee.

The report was adopted unanimously.

The matter landed in the committee’s lap after a settlement agreement was reached two weeks ago in legal proceedings that McBride had instituted against Police Minister Bheki Cele.

Cele wrote to him to say that his contract would not be renewed.

The committee was also party to court proceedings.

In a draft order handed to the Pretoria high court, the parties agreed that the decision Cele had taken to not renew McBride’s term was a preliminary one that still needed to be confirmed or rejected by the committee.

More to follow. — News24