Ntlemeza’s urgent bid to get job back delayed

An urgent application by ousted Hawks head General Berning Ntlemeza to immediately get his job back was removed on Thursday from the urgent court roll in the High Court in Pretoria.

Judge Bill Prinsloo removed Ntlemeza’s application from the roll because the court papers were not in order.

This means the application might only proceed next week, or might take even longer before it comes to court.

Ntlemeza wants the court to force Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to allow him back in his office and to interdict the minister from “intimidating” him and making public statements that “subject him to ridicule”.

He said in court papers it was clear Mbalula, with his “bellicose speech, military attitude” and “weird conduct”, was on the warpath against him and was determined not to recognise him as head of the Hawks.

He accused Mbalula of not respecting the legal process, saying the minister had not ceased with his “escapades” even after being warned that his appeal against an enforcement order granted by the high court automatically suspended an order that his appointment had been illegal.

“I do not know why he had adopted a hostile approach towards me because the erstwhile minister of police was satisfied with my services until he was transferred to the department of public works.

“…What is most hurtful are the gratuitous, vilifying remarks the minister continues to make about me in the media. This is damaging not only to me but also to the image of the DPCI [Hawks].

“A restraint order is necessary to stop him from his abrasive escapades,” he said.

Ntlemeza wants the court to stop Mbalula and his employees from intimidating him and preventing him from entering the Hawks offices in Pretoria and unlawfully interfering with the performance of his duties as the head of the Hawks.

He further wants his cellphone and official vehicle back and wants the court to stop Mbalula from making public statements that “embarrass, humiliate, degrade, undermine and subject [him] to contempt and ridicule”.

Ntlemeza wants to remain in his post on the same terms as before a ruling by a full bench of the high court, enforcing its March 17 ruling setting aside former police minister Nathi Nhleko’s decision to appoint him as head of the Hawks pending the outcome of his appeal.

Ntlemeza said in terms of the Superior Courts Act, the court granting an enforcement order had to give its reasons immediately, which was not done, and the ruling was therefore defective.

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