The Gauteng provincial government will take action against a SAPS station commander who has taken 156 leave days since his appointment in 2014.
|||Johannesburg – The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Tuesday said it welcomed the move by the Gauteng provincial government to urgently take action against “truant” Jeppe Police Station Commander Brigadier Govandsamy Mariemuthoo.
Mariemuthoo allegedly took 64 days “leave” for a work related injury to his knee.
Jack Bloom, DA constituency head Johannesburg East, said: “I welcome the announcement today by Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane that the position of Jeppe Police Station Commander Brigadier Govandsamy Mariemuthoo is under review as a matter of urgency”.
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Bloom said in a statement that Nkosi-Malobane revealed in an oral reply “to my questions in the House following the disclosure earlier this month that Mariemuthoo had taken 156 days absence (leave) since his appointment at the station in February 2014”.
Nkosi-Malobane said that there was an ongoing investigation into this matter and that Mariemuthoo had been “very clever” to take as many days as possible using “different categories of leave”.
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This included 64 days, which he took for what was described as “Alleged IOD – Injury Left Knee”, which Nkosi-Malobane said had not been granted but was “pending” as processes had not been finalised.
Nkosi-Malobane reportedly said that she was not sure whether Mariemuthoo was at home when he was on leave or “moonlighting”.
“I pointed out that the general absenteeism at the station is 14% and she (Nkosi-Malobane) said that when the head is ill-disciplined others will follow,” said Bloom.
“I am surprised that the MEC said she did not know about his previous record of high absence when he was the station commander at Benoni, which shows that this has been an ongoing problem with Mariemuthoo.
“Crime is high in the area and I hope that an effective station commander is put in place as soon as possible.”
African News Agency