Jan Gerber
Suspended police Crime Intelligence Chief, Lieutenant-General Peter Jacobs, has lost a court bid to return to work.
Jacobs, and five officers under his command, face misconduct charges which centre on the use of a secret police slush fund to buy Covid-19 PPE.
The veteran cop claims he is being pushed out for exposing graft in the uppermost echelons of the police.
An urgent court bid by police Crime Intelligence head Peter Jacobs, in which he and five of his subordinates challenged their suspensions over a R1.5 million Covid-19 personal protection equipment (PPE) procurement scandal, was dismissed by the Pretoria High court on Friday.
Court upholds Crime Intelligence boss’s suspension Bernadette Wicks
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. Picture: Moneyweb The court found that despite arguments to the contrary, the national police commissioner was not only entitled to suspend Lieutenant-General Peter Jacobs, he was obliged to.
The North Gauteng Court has thrown out suspended Crime Intelligence (CI) boss Lieutenant-General Peter Jacobs’ urgent bid for reinstatement.
Late last year, National Saps Commissioner Khehla Sitole suspended Jacobs and five of his fellow officers over alleged abuses of the Secret Service Account. They in response turned to the court, where they argued due process had not been followed and that Sitole had in fact not been in a position to take the action he had.
Acting Judge Jacques Minnaar found on 8 January 2021 that National Police Commissioner Khehla Sitole was not only entitled to act against Jacobs and his fellow officers, he “is obliged to do so by law”.
Jacobs, as well as other top CI officials, Brigadier Albo Lombard, section head: intelligence planning and monitoring; Colonel Isaac Walljee, acting section head: supply chain management; Colonel Manogaran Gopal, section commander: vehicle fleet management and asset management secret services account: supply chain management; Major General Maperemisa Lekalakala, acting component head and CFO secret services account; Colonel Bale Matamela, section commander: procurement secret services account were all suspended by Sitole between 30 November and early December 2020.