The dismissal of Western Cape’s head of detectives, Major-General Jeremy Vearey, on Monday, May 31, once again highlights the leadership crisis in the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Vearey, a former uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) operative was kicked to the curb following a social media post that was allegedly directed at National Police Commissioner General Khehla Sitole.
According to IOL, Eastern Cape police commissioner Lieutenant-General Lizwe Ntshinga chaired the Expeditious Procedure Meeting on May 27 and found that Vearey had brought the name of the police into disrepute with eight Facebook posts between December 7, 2020, and February 25, 2021. Some of the posts allegedly featured pictures of the national commissioner and links to stories and documents.
Brig Vish Naidoo confirmed that the dismissal notice was served to Vearey by Sitole on Friday, May 28, indicating that the messages contained words that were considered derogatory, offensive, insulting and disrespectful to the national commissioner, and bringing SAPS into disrepute, Times Live reported.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Western Cape has called for stability within SAPS in the province.
Community Safety spokesperson Reagen Allen said the latest developments speak to a greater need for stability within the SAPS management in the Western Cape “and therefore the DA reiterates that the police services should decentralised to the authority of the provincial government.
“We cannot allow any such internal disputes or SAPS management issues to further impact on the state of crime in the Western Cape. The latest quarterly crime statistics show a 23% decline in Crime Detected as a Result of Police Action, indicating that residents in the Western Cape may already be suffering under inaction from SAPS”.
This is a developing story.
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Picture: Twitter/@RantsSouth