Top cop Jeremy Vearey faces axe

Major-General Jeremy Vearey could be fired following a SAPS disciplinary hearing.

The head of the detective service in the Western Cape was found guilty of bringing the SAPS into disrepute with a series of social media posts criticising national commissioner General Khehla Sitole.

Now Vearey’s fate lies in Sitole’s hands as the general would need to approve the recommendation to axe him.

In a decision dated 27 May, Eastern Cape provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Liziwe Ntshinga, who chaired the disciplinary process conducted last month, concluded that anything short of dismissal would amount to condoning Veary’s conduct.

Vearey made eight Facebook posts between December 2020 and February 2021 containing links to media reports.

Most of these referred to disciplinary charges against former crime intelligence boss, Peter Jacobs, who represented Vearey in the disciplinary meeting.

A post from January included a picture of the national commissioner and a caption by Vearey which read: “an acute case of foot-in-mouth” disease, according to Ntshinga’s 14-page finding.

Another post from February, reprised a News24 article about Jacobs going to court to challenge the charges against him and was captioned “Moer hulle! F*** them!”

Two senior officers investigating Jacobs told the inquiry that the posts made them feel intimidated and unsafe.

Contrary to the SAPS discipline regulations, Vearey argued that he had no charge to answer as there was no misconduct as defined by the regulations and that the elements of a charge must include the employee’s exact location and that in this instance, his was not indicated.

But Ntshinga said: “I have heard the response of the employee to the allegations and I am of the view that the employee is refusing to take responsibility for his own actions.”

She said the fact that there were eight separate posts showed that Vearey had acted deliberately and his actions pointed to gross ill discipline.

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