‘I am not bothered about aspersions’
PROFILE: Meet SA’s new police chief Khehla Sitole
A career policeman has been handed the reins to transform the force, and he began to work on a turnaround plan as soon as he was informed of his appointment
The new national police commissioner, Gen Khehla Sitole, is a man with big plans for the SA Police Service and the country. He wants to restore the authority of the state which, he says, has been undermined by criminal elements. "The aim [of criminals] is to undermine policing in the country, therefore suggesting that the authority of the state is not taken seriously," he told the Financial Mail this week. Sitole has served in the SA Police Service for 31 years after beginning his career as a student constable during the apartheid era. He is the first career policeman to permanently head the police service since George Fivaz was appointed by Nelson Mandela in 1995. Jackie Selebi, Bheki Cele and Riah Phiyega, the other commissioners, were political appointments. Sitole says he started working on a turnaround plan for the police as soon as he was informed of his appointment. He has the enormous task of restoring confidence to the police service, which has lost its edge and public trus...
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