There has been a twist in the tale following the dismissal of Western Cape detective head, Major-General Jeremy Vearey. The top cop was dismissed on Friday, May 28, for allegedly bringing the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the reputation of the National Commissioner Kehla Sitole into disrepute. Vearey allegedly posted derogatory statements on social media which police reports say were aimed at Sitole.
However, in an interview with ENCA on Thursday, June 3, the former Umkhonto We Sizwe operative has hit back at his former employers, describing his dismissal as “tribalism and ethnonationalism” in the SAPS that was affecting top coloured officers from receiving certain posts.
[ICYMI] WATCH: Axed top cop Jeremy Vearey shoots from the hiphttps://t.co/vlCeBipfG1
— eNCA (@eNCA) June 4, 2021
According to Vearey the expeditious process that had been activated to fire him had been outside SAPS’s disciplinary code as he had not been afforded an opportunity to interrogate evidence related to the social media posts that got him fired.
Vearey said these actions were that of minority national police generals and he had raised the issue on numerous occasions including with National Commissioner Khehla Sitole to no avail.
“I was the one when the national commissioner Sitole came to brief us about the “We Are One” programme who raised that we are dealing with the problem of tribalism in the organisation. If we go to certain parts of the country there is a preference for a certain demographic. We are a national police service, we are not a Bantustan confederacy,” Vearey said.
He also went on to mention that other senior cops including Zelda Holtzman, Anwa Dramat, Andre Lincoln were all on the receiving end of vicious punitive action by certain “renegade agents” operating as public servants for the state.
Meanwhile, Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union(Popcru) spokesperson Richard Mamabolo indicated that in terms of the dispute resolution, they have referred the matter to the Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council. Mamabolo said Popcru supports Major-General Vearey against the current case of dismissal on the Contravention of the provisions of Regulation 5(4) (x) of the SAPS Discipline Regulations, 2016, bringing the name of the employer into disrepute, IOL reports.
Lynn Abrahams from “Hands off the people’s Vearey, Jacobs, Lincoln” Facebook page added that pickets are being planned at various SAPS stations next week.
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Picture : Twitter/ENCA