OPINIONISTA: The constitutional need for independent anti-corruption machinery of state By Paul Hoffman PaulHoffmanSC
And so it is, in the case of the recently fired executive director of our Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Robert McBride, that more heat than light has been generated around the contested renewal of his term of office for a further five years.
The law found its way onto the statute book in accordance with this interpretation of the word “independence”. While the Constitution itself is somewhat light on the need for anti-corruption machinery of state, it does say that the police must prevent and combat crime . It also provides that the National Prosecuting Authority must exercise its functions without fear, favour or prejudice: in a word, “independently”.
Back in December 2007, when the ANC resolved to disband the Scorpions urgently, Gwede Mantashe justified the decision in a meeting with Helen Zille, then leader of the opposition, at Luthuli House. He was then Secretary-General of the ANC and he is now its Chairman and a member of the first Ramaphosa Cabinet.
One of the best ways of ensuring that the executive director is secure in his tenure of office is to make his term a single non-renewable term of office. In this way, the temptation to “be nice” to the appointing authorities in order to get an extended appointment is removed. The executive director is in office once, only once and for a fixed term.
Whether it is up to Parliament to renew the term of office of the executive director of IPID is a question that the Constitutional Court will have to consider now that the former executive director is litigating the fairness and rationality of the termination of his services as an executive director.
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