Suspended Mpumalanga provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Manamela has failed in her application for leave to appeal the judgment dismissing her attempt to stop the board of inquiry instituted against her.
Manamela went to the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, seeking to have her superior, the suspended National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola, held in contempt of court. She also aimed to stop the board of inquiry established to investigate serious misconduct allegations until the proceedings at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) were finalised.
Last month, Judge Anthony Millar found that the board of inquiry the SA Police Service (SAPS) intends to institute is statutory and is convened during the term of office in respect of who the inquiry is to be conducted and may not only be convened for Manamela while she is still in office as Mpumalanga provincial police commissioner.
The judge ruled that it was not open to Manamela to seek to interdict the board of inquiry from being convened because she had not asserted her rights to compel a response.
Judge Millar stated that Manamela did not successfully present a case to stop the inquiry or to claim a right to personal legal representation during the inquiry.
Manamela is facing charges of misconduct relating to her alleged acceptance of gifts worth nearly R300,000 from “SAPS semi-official funds” and approval of unlawful promotions of police officers with pending corruption cases.
On Wednesday, Judge Millar dismissed Manamela’s application for leave to appeal his May 18 judgment, finding that her initial attempt to interdict the board was done pending the determination of her SCA proceedings.
“In this regard, it was interlocutory in nature and expired when the application for leave to appeal in the Constitutional Court was dismissed,” the judge stated.
Manamela had also wanted the SAPS to foot her legal bill in terms of the police’s 2017 national instruction, which regulates the payment of legal representation in criminal matters or at inquiries.
She had argued that the purpose of legal assistance in inquiry proceedings is institutional and to protect the SAPS from adverse findings made by an external body.
However, Judge Millar was unconvinced.
“Manamela failed to establish a right to paid legal representation and additionally, although having previously some three years prior, indicated her intention to apply for this, had been dilatory and had done nothing until the urgent application was brought on May 14, 2026,” the judge explained.
The SAPS charged Manamela in February 2023, after which she was also suspended, and her attempts to interdict the board of inquiry have been unsuccessful.
Judge Millar said he was not persuaded that another court would come to a different conclusion or that there is some compelling reason why leave to appeal should be granted.
“Additionally, I am persuaded that that by Manamela’s participation in the board of inquiry, she has preempted (put an end to) her right to appeal in any event,” reads the judgment.
Loyiso Sidimba
iol.co.za
