Major General Feroz Khan, whose challenge to his police disciplinary case was struck off the Labour Court roll on Monday
Image: ITUMELENG ENGLISH
Suspended crime intelligence deputy head Major General Feroz Khan has failed in his urgent bid to overturn a disciplinary process that recommended his dismissal from the police.
The Labour Court struck Khan's application off the roll on Monday, with Judge Connie Prinsloo finding that the court had no jurisdiction to hear it and that Khan had, in any event, failed to establish any urgency.
"The application is struck off the roll for lack of jurisdiction, alternatively for lack of urgency," Prinsloo's order read.
Prinsloo ordered the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, which brought the case on Khan's behalf, to pay the police's legal costs.
Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo was approached for comment, and his response will be added once received.
The court did not consider the merits of Khan's case.
The application was brought against the police minister, acting national commissioner Lieutenant General Hilda Senthumule, crime intelligence divisional commissioner Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo and Major General J.B. Khumalo, cited in his official capacity.
The matter was heard on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.
The internal disciplinary case that prompted Khan's court application was an expedited process in which he was found guilty of misconduct and bringing the police service into disrepute.
Dismissal was recommended as the sanction.
Khan's lawyer, Muhammed Vally, has disputed that Khan was dismissed and said the disciplinary hearing was concluded in his absence while he was dealing with medical problems.
Khan was shot in June in what has been reported as an attempt on his life, and was still in hospital in July.
The police said last week that they could not discuss the disciplinary case because it was an internal process that was also before the Labour Court.
KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has publicly claimed that Khan was shielded from investigation by senior politicians.
Both the Madlanga Commission and Parliament's ad hoc committee investigating Mkhwanazi's allegations of political interference in the police have been urged to summon Khan.
Khan faces a separate criminal case with Gauteng Hawks head Major General Ebrahim Kadwa and businessman Tariq Downes.
The three are charged with defeating the ends of justice and contravening the Precious Metals Act, over a 2021 incident in which Downes was found with a raw gold bar and allegedly claimed to be an undercover police agent, with Khan and Kadwa accused of confirming that claim so that he would be released.
They were each granted bail of R20,000 in May.
That case returns to the Kempton Park Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
Khan missed the last appearance in July while in hospital, and the warrant of arrest issued against him was stayed until he next appears in court.
In 2024, Khan won an urgent interdict in the Labour Court stopping the police from putting him through a fast-tracked process that could have seen him summarily dismissed, with acting judge Lindiwe Vukeya ordering that his hearing instead be run under the less severe disciplinary regulations.
IOL News
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