Nhleko allegedly ‘favoured’  Ntlemeza for Hawks top job

According to a report, Police Minister Nathi Nhleko allegedly ignored a short list of five highly qualified police officers when he appointed Major-General Mthandazo Ntlemeza as head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), also known as the Hawks.

City Press reported on Sunday that after the process was concluded in 2013, Nhleko readvertised the job and hired Ntlemeza without any explanation provided to the short-listed candidates as to why the post was readvertised, said two of the applicants the paper spoke to.

Ntlemeza – who’s under investigation from police watchdog organisation the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) for defeating the ends of justice in relation to threatening SMSes he allegedly sent to Ipid investigators – apparently did not make the short list for candidates considered for the Hawks post according to a confidential information note, dated December 2013.

The five were selected over 22 other applicants, including Ntlemeza, to replace the then incumbent, Anwa Dramat, whose contract was coming to an end.

City Press reported that the candidates had been interviewed in January 2015 by a panel that included former director-general of the State Security Agency (SSA) Sonto Kudjoe; Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni; defence intelligence head Mduduzi Nyembe; and SSA corporate services head JSC Mosikare.

Nhleko is said to have asked suspended national police commissioner Riah Phiyega, before her suspension, for Dramat’s appointment letter as well as the names of those who had applied for the job in 2013, which she agreed to.

Before his appointment as the priority crime unit’s chief, Ntlemeza was acting in the post following Dramat’s suspension for his alleged involvement in the illegal rendition of Zimbabwean nationals.

In 2015 the post was reportedly then readvertised with Ntlemeza being short-listed alongside five other candidates, including Johan Booysen, former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head.

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The short-listing panel chaired by Nhleko included Justice Minister Michael Masutha, State Security Minister David Mahlobo, Deputy Police Minister Maggie Sotyu and senior Hawks officer Major-General Yolisa Matakata.

Nhleko then took more than a year to formally inform Parliament that he had given Ntlemeza the job.

Booysen told the paper when they went for interviews Ntlemeza didn’t attend the interviews like the other candidates. He also said he was shocked to hear Ntlemeza got the job because he told them at a provincial commanders’ meeting in Limpopo that he did not apply for it.

“Shortly after I applied for the post, Ntlemeza suspended me. I challenged the suspension in court and got reinstated,” he said.

Civil rights organisations Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation are currently challenging Ntlemeza’s appointment in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on the grounds that he is unfit to hold office, following a judge’s ruling.

The appointments of Ntlemeza and others are apparently being investigated by Ipid as well.