Ag, nee man. Apparently, acting crime intelligence boss, Chris Ngcobo, has been put on “special leave” after it emerged that he may just have lied all over his CV. Our previous crime intelligence boss, Richard Mdluli, had to leave because of a few charges of fraud, corruption and murder – you know – the usual stuff. And when Ngcobo was appointed to replace the hapless Mdluli, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega said he would bring “stability in the police intelligence environment”. Okay, good one.

South Africa’s crime intelligence division is supposed to be a little like the FBI. It manages information gathering, centralised and integrated intelligence management, co-ordination and analysis. You know, ‘intel’ and stuff. Commissioner Phiyega said that it was with “a huge sense of disappointment” that Maj-Gen Ngcobo had go away for a while because he was a fibber.

During a vetting process, discrepancies were found between the declaration made by Maj-Gen Ngcobo and officials records pertaining to his qualifications and he has so far failed to satisfactorily explain the discrepancies. His top-secret security clearance was therefore denied.

He had a top-secret security pass that was given to him based on a fake CV? All you can do is laugh. South Africa’s top intelligence organisation was fooled by a dodgy CV. “Action should be taken against people who lie about their qualifications, regardless of their rank. This is the kind of action that is needed in order to fix the problems with the police, but only if it’s done correctly”, said Gareth Newham, head of the governance, crime and justice division at the Institute for Security Studies.

Yes, Mr Newham, we need to send more criminals on “special leave”.

Lets hope that the new guy, Maj-Gen Bongiwe Zulu, lasts longer than his predecessors. Although it seems as if the only thing you need to join the force these days is a badge that you draw with some crayons. And hey, if you get caught, you go on leave!

Call that a win-win.

[Source : Business Day Live]