ANC JOBURG CHALLENGES TEMBE’S APPOINTMENT AS POLICE CHIEF
The Democratic Alliance (DA) led coalition in the City of Johannesburg has once again demonstrated that they are prepared to flout recruitment and appointment processes to appoint the candidates they want, despite those candidates failing dismally in the interview process. The appointment of David Tembe as the Chief of Police in the municipality is proof of this fact.
At the 5th Extra-ordinary Council meeting of 19 October 2017 the Mayor brought a report to appoint General Gela as the Chief of Police for the City of Joburg. In that same report David Tembe was scored as candidate number five. After discussions at this meeting the Mayor withdrew the report and the matter was sent back to the executive for further consideration. Following the 19 October 2017 Council meeting there were no new set of interviews for the Chief of Police for the City of Joburg. Instead a new report on the appointment of the Chief of Police was presented to Council on the 29 November 2017. In this new report David Tembe was recommended for appointment as the Chief of Police.
The ANC Caucus in the City of Johannesburg rejected this appointment as it did not afford the highest scoring candidates the opportunity to be appointed to the position. Paragraph 6 of the report titled RECRUITMENT PROCESS AND APPOINTMENT OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE states the following:
- RECOMMENDATION BY RECRUITMENT PANEL
“The unanimous recommendation is that David Sony Tembe is the most suitable candidate and should be recommended for appointment subject to him obtaining the necessary security clearance required by the City. It should be noted that this candidate was the fifth most suitable based on the interviewing process by the Panel.
The reason for recommending the fifth candidate is that this is a crucial position and the City prefers the candidate being able to take-up the position immediately. The advantage of this candidate is that he meets the requirement of being a registered member of the Municipal Police Service. The first four candidates are unfortunately not registered members of a Municipal Police Service and the process of ensuring that the necessary training and registration would take months to conclude”.
This recommendation by the panel if it indeed came from the panel, clearly demonstrates that David Tembe is not the most suitable candidate to be appointed as the Chief of Police in the City of Joburg. Therefore, his appointment will be challenged by the ANC using all available avenues. We will in the meantime approach the MEC for Cooperative Governance in the province and the Minister of Public Service and Administration to look into the matter. We have also given our legal team all the required documentation to start a process to have this appointment set aside.
