How Superintendent Naidoo could have avoided all the fuss

Some people think that the scrutiny of Superintendent Naidoo is because he is standing for Labour. It isn’t. It is simply because he didn’t follow the rules laid out in the Police Manual. If he had, none of this would have happened.

Consider what would have occurred if he had approached his boss four months ago when Labour first talked to him about standing. I imagine it would have been something like this.

“Hey, I need to let you know that the Labour Leader has asked me to consider standing for them at the election. I’m tempted to say yes if am likely to have a high enough place on their list, but I won’t know until June if that looks likely”

“That’s great you’ve been asked. Would be very good to have more MPs with Police experience in Parliament. I really appreciate being given an early heads up. We need to work out a plan to protect you and the Police, while you decide. Let me chat to the Commissioner, and we’ll touch base next week”

“Okay I’ve talked to the Commissioner, and what we thinks will work well is if we put you into a special role for three months while you are deciding. You can head up the Taskforce on xxxx, and your deputy will act in your role. This means you are not having to interact with the Minister while you are deciding, and won’t be party to any discussions around government policy in this space. If you decide not to stand, then you can just go back into your old role and carry on. No one apart from us will know you were thinking about standing. If you do decide to stand, then you can carry on heading up the Taskforce until you take leave”

This is all he had to do. He is not the first person in the public service to decide to stand. These sort of discussions occur often,. and mitigation strategies are worked on.

What is unusual is when you only tell your boss you are standing, four days before the public announcement. What is unusual is when the party puts in place a special process, explicitly so you can avoid telling your bosses you are thinking of standing.