McBride versus Cele showdown in court

Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) head Robert McBride is back in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday in the fight to keep his job. The Ipid head is determined to have the court rule the decision made by Police Minister Bheki Cele to not renew his contract as head of IPID set aside.

Cele, according to SABC news, argues that his decision was not final and that it would be up to parliament to make the appointment. The apparent squabble between Mcbride and Cele continues in court as McBride hopes the court will force the portfolio committee to decide his fate when his contract ends on February 28.

McBride has maintained that only the portfolio committee has the right to end or renew his contract. In December, Cele informed McBride that he had decided not to renew his five-year employment contract and that his last working day would be on February 28. McBride referred Cele to a 2016 Constitutional Court judgment which reinstated him after then police minister Nathi Nhleko illegally suspended him. It ruled the minister did not have the power to intervene in Ipid matters.

The Constitutional Court ruled that Sec 6(3) of the Ipid Act was unconstitutional for making the executive director subject to the laws governing the public service and found it was subversive of Ipid’s institutional and functional independence to empower the minister to unilaterally interfere with the director’s tenure.

McBride has accused Cele of making a unilateral decision that was unlawful and violated the constitutionally entrenched independence of Ipid.

(Compiled by Gopolang Chawane, additional reporting by Ilse de Lange)

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