The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein is this morning expected to hear arguments in the Helen Suzman Foundation’s continuing battle to protect the Independent Police Investigative Directorate from what it terms “political interference”.
The case relates to the renewal process of the contract of former IPID executive director, Robert McBride.
The Foundation wants the SCA to set aside a court order agreed upon by Police Minister Bheki Cele and McBride in February 2019 when McBride’s contract expired.
The IPID Act requires that the post be filled in a time not exceeding a year. But on the 1st of March this year, the minister was yet to nominate a candidate.
The dispute in the matter is concerned with the question of whether the Minister and the committee were permitted to take a decision not to renew the tenure of the then executive director and the interpretation of the Act in this regard.
In a consent order which was made by the high court in Pretoria in February last year then head of IPID Robert Mcbride and the Police Minister agreed on a mechanism for the renewal of the executive director’s tenure.
The foundation appealed against that order. It said until the SCA had pronounced its judgment, the office of the executive director cannot be viewed as vacant – and as a result any appointments made to this office would be unlawful.
