McBride wants chapter ‘closed’

INTERVENTION: COURT TO DECIDE IF DEAL ‘UNLAWFUL’

Foundation concerned about which body decides renewal of Ipid boss’ contract.

Former Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) head Robert McBride says he’s “looking forward” to the outcome of a legal bid to effectively void the deal he and Police Minister Bheki Cele struck in 2019 to let a portfolio committee decide his fate.

McBride rushed to the High Court in Pretoria in January 2019, after learning his contract was set to expire the following month and Cele had decided not to renew it.

He wanted an order stating the decision was not the minister’s to make but at the last minute the parties reached an agreement, which Judge Wendy Hughes subsequently made an order of the court, in terms of which it was deferred to the police portfolio committee.

The portfolio committee also decided against the renewal of McBride’s contract.

Now, the Helen Suzman Foundation – admitted as amicus curiae or friend of the court – has approached the Supreme Court of Appeal to overturn Hughes’ sanctioning of an agreement it says was “constitutionally impermissible” and “unlawful”.

“This private agreement and the court’s endorsement concentrate the power of renewal in the minister and the committee, and exposes Ipid to political interference or the perception of such interference,” the foundation said in its papers.

“The high court rubber stamped the agreement as a consent order, without any consideration as to its constitutionality.”

The case was initially set down for November last year, but questions were raised about the potential negative impact of the relief sought on McBride – who has since been appointed director of the State Security Agency’s foreign branch. So it was postponed until yesterday for an affidavit outlining his position to be filed.

In that affidavit, McBride said he agreed to abide by the court’s decision and was “looking forward to the court’s intervention ... in order to bring certainty on what has been a very troubling and challenging period for myself and Ipid”.

Judgment was reserved.