National
Judgment in McBride labour court application on Friday─── 06:25 Fri, 24 Jul 2015
Johannesburg - The Labour Court in Johannesburg will hand down judgment on Friday in an application by suspended Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) head Robert McBride to interdict his disciplinary hearing.
The court heard McBride's application on Thursday for his hearing to be stayed pending his constitutional challenge of the powers of the police minister.
"All we can do is await the judgment."
Earlier this month McBride's lawyers brought an application to the hearing for the stay of proceedings pending the challenge, which will be heard in the High Court in Pretoria.
That application was dismissed.
McBride was suspended from Ipid in March, reportedly because of a decision he took to clear former Hawks boss Anwa Dramat and Gauteng Hawks head Shadrack Sibiya of allegations that they were involved in the rendition of five Zimbabwean nationals.
Before his actual suspension, McBride brought an urgent application to stop Police Minister Nathi Nhleko from suspending him, but the High Court in Pretoria found that the application was not urgent and struck it off the roll.
In his urgent application, McBride alleged that the decision to suspend him was not motivated by "any legitimate reason nor reasons given in the suspension notice", but rather by "his concern to undermine and suppress the Ipid investigation report that vindicates Dramat and Sibiya, and upon which the Minister had relied to justify his suspension of them".
In his notice of intention to suspend McBride, Nhleko alleged that the Ipid head had breached his statutory responsibility to act with independence and impartiality in that he informed Dramat and Sibiya, through their legal representatives, in writing that they had been cleared by the Ipid investigation.
In 2010, five men - including Witness Ndeya, Gordon Dube and Pritchard Tshuma - were illegally repatriated to Zimbabwe by the Hawks. The proper extradition process was not followed. Ndeya and Dube were allegedly murdered by Zimbabwean police.
In an initial report, Ipid found that Dramat and Sibiya were directly involved in the renditions. According to a final report, compiled in March 2014, they were cleared on the basis of additional evidence.
