Top cop out over transfer to Bisho
By Guy Rogers
Source: The Herald Online
TOP cop and anti-poaching stalwart Director Wayne Hackart was declared “in excess” because he refused a transfer to Bisho, a reliable source said yesterday.
The officer, who did not want to be identified, was commenting on the shock sidelining this week of Dir Hackart, one of the most respected senior policemen in the province.
He was the youngest officer in the country’s history, at the age of 32, to reach the rank of director (previously colonel). On Wednesday, however, he cleared out his office at Mount Road police station and was booked off on indefinite leave for stress.
Insp Morne (Fires) van Vuuren, operations chief of the perlemoen anti-poaching task team, said yesterday that Dir Hackart’s work had been much admired.
“He’s one of the best officers I’ve worked under in the Eastern Cape, especially in the area of operational planning.”
He said it was not clear when new appointments would be made to head the provincial crime prevention unit or the perlemoen task team, both positions occupied by Dir Hackart.
It is understood that it was Port Elizabeth’s exploding illegal perlemoen trade and the director’s general aptitude for operational planning, which he demonstrated during his tour of duty in Umtata, that prompted his deployment here from Transkei a year ago.
But it is reported that provincial police headquarters was arguing that the director “does not have a post” in Port Elizabeth.
“In terms of the ‘Resolution 7’ restructuring programme, they offered him a senior post but said he had to move to Bisho. He refused, so they told him he was ‘in excess’.”
Theoretically, this means that police human resources will look at placing Dir Hackart elsewhere in the country or failing this in another government department.
If nothing is available or he is not happy with the placement, he will be offered a package – meaning the police and the public, besieged by crime, could lose one of their most highly-trained and, by all accounts, dedicated officers.
Approached for comment, provincial police spokesman Snr Supt Marinda Mills said yesterday that Commissioner Ross Mpongoma was fully up to date with Dir Hackart’s case. “But he refrains from commenting on individual cases within the broader restructuring process.”
Police also confirmed yesterday that another senior policeman, Supt Willem Wilken, who was also involved in fighting perlemoen poaching, has been booked off with stress.
