Zuma irrational for firing me - Cele

2012-07-06 08:23

Bheki Cele (Werner Beukes, Sapa)

Johannesburg - Axed national police commissioner Bheki Cele wants the North Gauteng High Court to set aside his dismissal, The Times reported on Friday.

Cele filed papers in the court on Thursday calling for a review of the finding by the board of inquiry headed by Judge Jake Moloi.

In the papers, Cele described Moloi's report as biased and his public comments as "judicially unethical".

The retired Free State judge spoke on a radio show the day Cele was fired, The Times reported.

President Jacob Zuma is one of the six respondents.

The others are Moloi, his two board members, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and new national police commissioner Riah Phiyega.

Other measures

The papers allege that Zuma's firing of Cele was "irrational and arbitrary".

Cele accused the president of not having paid "any particular attention to the range of other measures it was open for him to take".

Zuma fired Cele in June following a recommendation by the board of inquiry, which Zuma had set up to probe allegations against Cele.

Moloi's inquiry and reports by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found "administrative deficiencies" in Cele's conduct as the police's accounting officer.

The Moloi-led inquiry was mandated to establish whether Cele had acted corruptly, dishonestly, or with an undeclared conflict of interest in relation to two police lease deals signed with controversial property mogul Roux Shabangu - one for a building in Pretoria, another for a building in Durban.

Last year, Madonsela found that Cele's involvement in deals to acquire new police headquarters was "improper, unlawful, and amounted to maladministration".

- SAPA