OR Tambo police in stand-off with top brass
June 29 2013 at 04:13pm
By Thabiso Thakali
By Thabiso Thakali
sxc.hu
File photo
Johannesburg - A group of 11
lieutenant-colonels in charge of operations at OR Tambo International Airport
have obtained a court order to stop their transfer from the border policing
unit to several police stations in Gauteng.
The officers approached the Johannesburg
Labour Court this week seeking an urgent interdict against police management
after they were issued with letters of transfer from their posts and “locked
out” for more than a week.
Their application before the court –
which was opposed by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and National Police
Commissioner General Riah Phiyega – stated that their transfer was procedurally
irregular, unfair and unlawful.
They told the court that police management was
victimising them for lodging several grievances with their station commander,
Brigadier Renny Mogale, for alleged irregularities and mismanagement.
“The station commander appoints
detectives on crime prevention posts and disregards members with crime
prevention experience,” the officers said in court papers.
“When there are irregularities
regarding the work of a task team, such as an incident where a 2kg bag of
cocaine was found inside a police car… nothing came of it.”
The border policing unit officers
further allege in their grievance to management that an officer, who was in
charge of the store in 2008 when a robbery took place, had not been charged.
During the robbery, R3 million, as well as drugs and firearms, were stolen.
“The station commander was not called
to account by the component head (Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela) and no
disciplinary steps were taken against the head of detectives,” the officers
wrote.
The officers claimed this week that
crime prevention efforts at the airport may have been compromised for the
duration which they had been rendered redundant while awaiting the court’s
decision.
Lieutenants-colonels are middle
managers at the airport charged with ensuring crime prevention operations are
carried out daily.
The divisional commissioner of
operational response services of the SAPS, Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela,
wrote to the 11 officers two weeks ago to inform them of their transfer.
In the letter, Mawela said in line with
the optimum service delivery requirements that division “had taken a decision
to reorganise the deployment at and within OR Tambo International Airport”.
“Middle managers have been identified
as a priority in the process of reorganisation as to afford an opportunity to
accumulate diverse policing experience,” he wrote. “In this regard you have
been identified for the redeployment in line with the acquisition of skills as
mentioned.”
The SA Police Union took the matter to
court on behalf of the 11 officers, challenging Mawela’s decision as
“unilateral and procedurally irregular”.
On behalf of the union, advocate
Jacques Basson told the Labour Court that in terms of the SAPS transfer policy
certain requirements had to be met for a transfer to be valid.
“The applicants were selectively targeted
and penalised for signing a memorandum of grievances against their bosses,” he
said. “There were no suitable vacant posts where they were being taken to.”
Basson said one of the 11 officers was
three months away from retirement and he did not see how his transfer would
benefit the service.
The State lawyer Steve Chauke, on
behalf of the Mthethwa and Phiyega argued that the application was not urgent
and that the officers were not properly trained to compete with other police
officers in their rank and higher.
Judge Hamilton Cele, however, said the
11 officers had not been given reasonable time to consider their transfer and
that it was not stated if they would return to their positions when their
training is complete.
He granted the officers an interim
interdict against their bosses until their grievances and disputes are resolved
in the bargaining council.
Police spokesman Brigadier Phuti Setati
would not comment, saying the “issues raised in your (Saturday Star’s) enquiry
are purely internal in nature and they are dealt with as such”.
Saturday Star
