jmpd chief tembe in firing line · sunda y w orld has alsolearnt that the chair of the grievance...

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Publication

SUNDAY WORLD

Page

9

Date

Sun 05 May 2019

AVE (ZAR)

28607.34

JMPD chiefTembe infiring lineUnion claims heabused his power

By Aubrey Mothombenimothombenia@sunda y world.co.za

Johannesburg Metro PoliceDepartment (JMPD) chiefDavid Tembe is facing an inter-nal investigation for abuse ofpower over allegations that heinstructed specialised munici-palofficers toguard his house.

Tembe, who took over as themetro police chieflate last year,is also being investigated for al-legedly tampering with thesupply chain managementprocesses. He allegedlychanged the specifications onthe procurement of uniformsfor the motorbike unit bychanging the linen material toleather.

Asaresult,the SA MunicipalWorkers Union (Samwu) hasasked Joburg mayor HermanMashaba and city manager DrNdivhoniswani Lukhwareni tofire Tembe.

The union has also written aletter of complaint to Mashaba,Lukhwareni and the MMC forpublic safety Michael Sun urg-ing them to resuscitate the dis-ciplinar y proceedings againstTembe on charges he allegedlydodged when he resigned fromthe JMPD in 2011.

The charges related toallega-tionsthat Tembedeviated fromnormal procurement process-es in the payment of R371,725t oa law firm, resulting in the city

incurring unauthorised ex-penditure.

"Tembe escaped this processthrough a resignation. It mustbe investigated whether hemade full disclosur es aboutthis misconduct during his in-terview for the post and thehearing into the matter shouldstart in earnest as he is nowback in the employ of the city,"reads the complaint.

But central to Samwu's com-plaint were recent allegationsthat Tembe removed membersof the Kg unit from the com-mand ofthe tactical directorateto his office and later orderedthem to guard his house inBramley 24hoursa day.

This, the union claims, hap-pened without any threat or se-curity analysis conducted byindependent bodies legallymandated by the SA constitu-tion suchas SAPS Crime Intel-ligence and the State SecurityAgency to ascer tain the exis-tenceof such threats.

The union said the unit,

David Tembe

which was launched byMashaba and Sun, was meanttofight the city's drugs scourge.

"The chief of police is not en-titled toany such benefit by rea-son of his contract of employ-ment and as such, his conductconstitutes a gross act of abuseof power ...," wrote Samwu offi-cial Jack Mokalapa.Documents seen by Sunday

World show that the Kg unitmembers started guardingTembe's house on July 24 2018until September 28 2018and hewasthere on day one.Sunday World hasalsoseena

log book filled by the K9 unitmembers detailing all their op-erations at Tembe's house.The log book shows that the

unit had four marked JMPDcars, two dogs trained to detectexplosives and one hound thatspecialised in sniffing outdrugs. Four officers, the log

book shows, worked day shiftandthe same numberatnight.It also shows that the highly

trained and specialised officerswere on several occasions re-quired to open and close thegate for Tembe'sgardener.

It further shows that the offi-cers only left after a violentprotest erupted in Westbury onSeptember 28 2018when theyhad to join their colleagues toquell the riots.City of Joburg spokesperson

Nthatisi Modingoane said:"The city can confirm that agrievance was lodged and thematteris beingattended to.

"To ensurethat this is done ina transparent manner, the cityand employee representativesagreed that the hearing be con-ducted by an independentchairperson. At this stage, thecity is of the view that com-menting publicly on allega-

The Metro police chlef is"accusedofordering K9 umt $o)

4members to guard hishome -/clay 'and night although Wareherewasnothr

tions would be irregular andmay compromise the ensuinggrievance process. While thecity cannot traverse the fullmerits ofthe grievance, the pre-sent allegations are to be fur-ther investigated as part of theongoing process."Tembe said: "I did not in-

struct anyone to guard and pa-trol my house. If they say I didthat they must show you my in-struction in writing, and ifthere's nothing like that, then Ihave nothing tosaytoyou."Sunday World has alsolearnt

that the chair of the grievancehearing against Tembe with-drew from the process citingthat he was not getting supportand cooperation from the City.

In aletterdated April 23 2019,Sandile July ofWerksmans At-torneys informed all the partiesinvolved of his decision towith-draw fromthe hearing.