McBride set on bringing down corruption in his return to post

RESTORED head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) Robert McBride says systemic corruption in the SAPS will be his top priority now that he's back in the saddle.

Last week, the National Prosecuting Authority dropped the charges against McBride relating to his alleged altering of an Ipid report on the rendition of Zimbabweans – supposedly to protect former Hawks head Anwa Dramat and his Gauteng counterpart Shadrack Sibiya.

McBride made his first appearance yesterday before Parliament's police oversight committee since his suspension more than a year ago by Police Minister Nathi Nhleko, and after the Constitutional Court set his suspension aside and Parliament declined the minister's request to subject McBride to a misconduct inquiry.

He said after the meeting he had always been adamant there was no case for him to answer, and the dropping of the charges vindicated this view. “The issue is, did our democracy work? Where there have been failures in one arm of governance, another arm will assist.

“In our case it was the courts, so the democracy works, and that's why the different elements of democracy are in place to ensure the checks and balances are kept and there isn't any abuse of power," McBride said.

His “most pressing concern” now was Ipid’s ability to take on complex systemic corruption problems.

“If we are able to deal with systemic corruption within SAPS, it sends a message because (the) most systemic corruption is carried out by senior members, and if we're able to effectively deal with that and eventually get prosecutions, it will send a message to the lower ranks, and you'll have a trickle-down effect of an improvement in ethics and integrity,” McBride said.

However, he would not be drawn on specific investigations, saying only that there was no “ceiling, glass or otherwise” on how far up his investigations could go. “I must go without fear, favour or prejudice to wherever the investigation takes me.”

He said he would also be revisiting the restructuring initiated by Israel Kgamanyane, appointed by Nhleko in his place after his suspension, and was awaiting a handover report on the matter.

"What has happened in the past, we're going forward. We’ve got work to do,” McBride said.