Ekurhuleni vets over 3,500 metro officers

The City of Ekurhuleni has resumed vetting its metro officers following damning allegations of corruption that have come out of the Madlanga commission. The city last vetted its metro officers in 2022 and at the time, 275 officers were found to have had previous convictions and 100 were awaiting trial for various crimes. The process to vet more than 3,500 Ekurhuleni metro police department (EMPD) began yesterday with senior officials.

The process is set to take two months and those with criminal records will face immediate disciplinary action, whereas those convicted for serious cases such as murder will be automatically dismissed, said chief audit executive Phillip Rakgwale. He said the vetting was necessitated by revelations at theMadlangacommission and the need to comply with legislation that requires annual vetting of officers as per theSAPS Act. “After the Madlanga revelations, the mayor late last year instructed us to undergo this process of vetting the metro officers.

The most important thing is that, as part of the legislation, the officers must be vetted annually,” he said. He said the reason for pausing verification over the years was due to instability in the leadership, change of leadership and internal issues of EMPD. “Some of these were exemplified in the Madlanga commission, but going forward, we are going to have it annually.” Rakgwale said this time around, the vetting is being done by an independent firm.

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“In the previous vetting, it might be that not all of the officers were vetted as they were doing the process through SAPS and internally. Now there is a straight directive to all offices and top management responsible for coordinating the officers to make sure everyone is vetted.” He added that while they are busy with the independent audit, state security will also do a further vetting behind the scenes. “It’s an independent process now to make sure it’s done properly.” DA councillor in Ekurhuleni, Jaco Terblanche, the timing for the process was very interesting and politically correct.

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