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The South African Policing Union would like to express its total loss of confidence in the leadership capability of the national police commissioner General John Khehla Sitole. It is clear that General Sitole has lost the plot to give visionary leadership and direction to the SAPS hardly a year at the helm. We were hopeful that with him at the helm of the police and being a career police official he will bring the necessary leadership to take the police service forward.

There are visible signs that the general will bring the SAPS down. SAPU calls upon President Cyril Ramaphosa to institute the required board of enquiry into the fitness of General Sitole to hold office. It will be too costly to wait for a day longer. It is clear that General Sitole was thrown into the deep end. As a responsible and professional union we do not have a problem in swallowing our pride and acknowledge our initial support in his appointment was misplaced.

It was recently that General Sitole fired a police Constable during an appearance in the police portfolio committee for allegedly assisting a cash in transit heist kingpin in Limpopo without any due processes followed. His outburst and playing to the gallery in order to score cheap political points with the political elite and public sympathy exposed his ignorance that as a constitutional state, due disciplinary processes have to be followed if there are allegations of transgressions.

We are not by any means condoning what that police constable is alleged to have done. If there is any criminality on the constable’s part, let the law both criminal proceedings and the internal disciplinary code apply. South Africa is not a banana republic - no one can be dismissed without due and fair processes. If we allow General Sitole to fire any officer without due processes that would be a setback to the gains that we achieved in the labour struggle in the police.

Whilst we were shocked by this strange behaviour by a senior top cop, it has come to our attention that General Sitole has also ordered the Gauteng provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Deliwe De Lange to leave the Gauteng provincial police commissioner position at the end of this month.

These costly mistakes are an indication that General Sitole will lead the SAPS to a hole that no one will be able to take the police out of. SAPU calls on the police portfolio committee to summon General Sitole to account for his actions. To wait for a day longer is to wait for disaster. The leadership crisis that is facing the SAPS under General Sitole’s poor leadership will compromise service delivery. The battle ahead of us-the war against crime will never be won with this man at the helm of the police.

Issued by South African Policing Union