MK Party: Ramaphosa made legal missteps when appointing interim police minister

The MK Party also slammed Ramaphosa’s choice of Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga to lead a commission of inquiry into police corruption as premature and a conflict of interest.

The official opposition claimed the president made several legal missteps when he placed Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu on special leave and appointed an interim minister from outside of the National Assembly to take his place.

The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party also slammed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s choice of Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga to lead a commission of inquiry into police corruption as premature and a conflict of interest.

The party said there’s enough evidence to fire Mchunu and a commission of inquiry to probe explosive allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi is unnecessary.

As it prepares a legal challenge to be lodged in the Constitutional Court, the MK Party said Ramaphosa has put two arms of state on a collision course by choosing a serving Constitutional Court judge to lead the inquiry before he’s officially retired.

MK Party parliamentary leader John Hlophe explained: “It’s a judicial commission of inquiry, it’s going to be headed by a judge, yet there are fundamental and serious allegations of corruption in the judiciary. In other words, the judiciary is called upon to investigate itself.”

Hlophe said appointing Wits law professor Firoz Cachalia as the interim police minister before his tenure as an academic officially ends is not only premature, but is another unconstitutional move because the country can’t have two ministers serving in the same portfolio.

The MK Party said the Constitution also does not allow one of the president’s two outside appointments to be in a temporary capacity.

Meanwhile, Parliament’s police and justice committees will hold a joint meeting on Wednesday to chart a path for an inquiry into the police and the allegations involving Mchunu.