Police commissioner suspended

2010-03-09 19:07

Johannesburg - A divisional commissioner in the SA Police Service has been suspended and is under investigation, an official said on Tuesday.

Divisional commissioner of legal services Lindiwe Mtimkulu has been suspended while an investigation is conducted, said Saps spokesperson Nonkululeko Mbatha.

Mtimkulu was suspended last week. Mbatha would not say why Mtimkulu was suspended or how long the investigation might last.

"I can't give those details," she said.

"The matter is under investigation, there is a process underway."

Damning report

Democratic Alliance MP and spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard said Mtimkulu had been incriminated in a "damning" report.

"This comes almost three years after a damning, 400-page, R8m report into the Police Legal Services was compiled," she said in a statement.

Barnard said that National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele had told a parliamentary committee that Mtimkulu had been suspended for violating police regulations.

"We welcome her suspension, but also need to establish why Saps took so long to act on its recommendations. Indeed, it still needs to be clarified upon exactly what grounds she has been suspended," said Barnard.

She said the report accused Mtimkulu of acting in an "autocratic fashion and was unable to make legal decisions because she suffered from 'a fundamental misunderstanding of the law and legal processes'".

Barnard said there was a backlog of 19 000 legal claims in Mtimkulu's office.

- SAPA