- Two tactical response team police officers were to immediately be provided to axed Major-General Jeremy Vearey, the Western Cape High Court ruled.
- His security was withdrawn at the end of June.
- Vearey was fired after an "expeditious" disciplinary process, held between April and May.
The Western Cape High Court has ordered two Tactical Response Team (TRT) police officers immediately be provided to axed Major-General Jeremy Vearey while he challenges his dismissal from the police.
The order was made on Thursday after Vearey brought an urgent court application for his protection to be reinstated. His security was withdrawn at the end of June.
According to the order, while he waited for the outcome of his Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council hearing, in which he challenged his dismissal, two TRT officers must be assigned to guard him.
"Where the applicant is required to attend at court for the purposes of testifying and for any necessary travel, by prior arrangement, the [national police commissioner] and [provincial commissioner] will provide the applicant with four members of the Tactical Response Team for these purposes," Judge Vincent Saldanha ordered.
Vearey was fired after an "expeditious" disciplinary process, held between April and May. It was found he had brought the police into disrepute through his posts on Facebook.
The police at the time said some of his posts were directed at national commissioner Khehla Sitole and "contained words that were considered derogatory, offensive, insulting, and disrespectful … these actions were considered a misconduct and therefore warranted a departmental action".
Activists have rallied behind Vearey after he was fired. Pickets have been held in several parts of Cape Town, calling for him to be reinstated.
In an interview following his dismissal, he told eNCA his posts were deliberately misunderstood, to the denigration of his mother tongue, Afrikaaps.
He said the person who translated "Moer Hulle" into "F--- them up" did it on purpose and that the post was to encourage his colleague, General Peter Jacobs, to be victorious in his own Labour Court case.