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National police commissioner, Gen Fannie Masemola, had struck her again in June this year with additional charges and sent her into suspension. Embattled as she was, Manamela immediately went to court to challenge her second suspension.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Suspended Mpumalanga police commissioner, Lt Col Daphney Semakaleng Manamela, has again turned the tables after the Pretoria High Court uplifted her suspension. 

National police commissioner, Fannie Masemola, re-suspended Manamela on June 14, stating that there were additional charges that had come up, over and above initial misconduct charges from 2022.

The axe had been placed on Manamela’s neck since March 2023 when Masemola established a Board of Inquiry to determine her fitness to hold office.

The legal wrangle started late in 2022 when former Mpumalanga commissioner, Lt General Thulani Ntobela, produced an unsolicited investigation report accusing Manamela of unduly receiving gifts worth thousands of rand—including a TV stand, couches and household appliances—as welcoming presents from police stations when she assumed office in 2021.

Ntobela’s company, The iFirm, also found that Manamela had engaged in nepotism, abuse of power and maladministration in that undeserving police officers were promoted.

Masemola initially suspended Manamela on February 24 2023, but she went to court to overturn the suspension.

The national commissioner struck her again in June this year with additional charges and sent her into suspension. Embattled, Manamela immediately went to court to challenge her second suspension.

Masemola had said that Manamela faced a litany of extremely serious allegations of misconduct ranging from unauthorised installation of a closed circuit CCTV surveillance system at her office and abuse of her position as provincial commissioner in a number of respects such as, for example, through the regular and unauthorised use of state escort vehicles.

Masemola further accused the provincial commissioner of:

·      Engaging in deliberate humiliating and belittling conduct in respect of her subordinates and colleagues and colleagues; and

·      Using obscene, profane and threatening language towards her colleagues and stakeholders.

Judge Nomonde Mngqibisa-Thusi said ordered Manamela’s June 14 suspension to be uplifted pending the hearing of review application that Manamela lodged against Masemola for bringing additional charges against her.

Manamela lodged the application on June 11, three days before she was suspended for the second time.

Judge Mngqibisa-Thusi also ordered that Masemola was interdicted and restrained fromconvening and conducting a Board of Inquiry on 14 to 18 October 2024 and 18 to 22 November 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the ongoing appeal processes in the Bloemfontein Suoreme Court of Appeal.

Manamela has petitioned the SCA after her application to set aside and review Masemola’s decision to establish a Board of Inquiry was dismissed.

“It is the applicant’s contention that the suspension was arbitrary and irrational in that she was not afforded sufficient opportunity to make

representations before she was suspended as [Masemola] had not provided her with the information she had requested to enable her to make representations,” she said.

Mngqibisa-Thusi further said that it was contended that as the charges

which form the subject matter of the board of inquiry are pertinent to the petition lodged with the SCA, it was premature for the board of inquiry to deal with those matters before the petition and/or the appeal was finalised.

“I am satisfied that the applicant has sufficiently shown that she has a prima facie right worthy of protection and that there is reasonable apprehension that she will suffer harm if the board of inquiry commences pending the petition and the review application. I am further satisfied that the applicant will suffer irreparable harm if the board of inquiry commences before the petition and the review application are determined. I am of the view that should the applicant be successful with her petition and review application, the horse would have bolted if the board on inquiry is allowed to commence and that she would not have a satisfactory remedy available to her.”