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The South African Policing Union is fully behind three senior officers of the SAPS, a Major-General and two Brigadiers who are taking former Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to the cleaners for his reckless and irresponsible statements whilst he was the minister.

These senior officers were accused by Mr Mbalula of working with criminals or being in the pockets of criminals in the Krugersdorp and Kagiso areas of the West Rand in Gauteng.

As much as former Minister Mbalula apologised and the officers accepted his apology, the injury to their names was already done. We had earlier advised Mr Mbalula to stop being excited when in front of television cameras. As much as he and the national commissioner reached an out of court settlement with the senior officers, the litigation process is a different ball all together.

We are suing Mbalula in his personal capacity. This is not about money, it is about the personal injury of the good name of our members. By taking Mbalula to the cleaners SAPU want to warn other senior managers and the political leadership of the Police that we will never allow them to use our members to score cheap political points. In some instances our members are made scapegoats by the leadership. No one will mess up our members and get away with murder.

We would like to warn the current National Commissioner General Khehla Sitole not to allow himself to be used by politicians. We will watch closely any developments around these senior officers and will never allow a situation where they are victimised.

The three senior officers demand an amount of R500 000 each from Mr Mbalula. As a caring union we have assembled a team of legal eagles to take on Mbalula. His ghosts will follow him to wherever he is. He might feel he was doing well in the Police however his reckless, irresponsible and rude language in front of television cameras was totally unacceptable.

Issued by SAPU