Dismissed Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride bears no ill will towards new Ekurhuleni metro police chief Hlula Msimang, who has reportedly replaced him after he was fired last September.

Speaking on Tuesday on the sidelines of his Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration hearing in which he hopes to get his job back, he said: "Hlula Msimang is my comrade. I bear no ill will towards him."

However, if he had been Msimang he would not have taken the post if Msimang was involved in a dispute over it.

He would, however, wait for the outcome of the CCMA matter before deciding whether to contest the appointment.

McBride was dismissed last September while on special leave as he waited for his drunk driving trial to be completed. The trial relates to an accident in Centurion in December 2006 in which he was allegedly under the influence of alcohol.

His sacking came after he went into the field to help quell xenophobic attacks in the area, instead of confining himself to administrative duties.

Municipal manager Patrick Flusk testified that the day before he started his job in June 2006, he was warned that there were "people" who wanted to oust McBride.

He met McBride and former mayor Duma Nkosi and was told by Nkosi: "...There are a number of people that will try to put pressure on me to get him, McBride, out of the way," said Flusk.

Answering questions put to him by McBride?s lawyer Mornay Crouse, Flusk said his own contract had not been extended when it ended and he believed this was due to an investigation into land deals that he had been asked to conduct for the Public Service Association (PSA) and the Gauteng government.

"As McBride investigated, we picked up these issues," he told commissioner Rob Mudau.

He was told by the new executive mayor Ntombi Mekgwe, who replaced Nkosi after he resigned, to process the land deals, but refused and also would not stop the investigation because he would have "gone to jail" for defying a PSA and Gauteng government request.

Flusk said that Mekgwe also did not have the authority to give him these orders, but only to guide him.

This matter ended with him being persuaded by the ANC in the province to settle for a payout of the remaining 27 months of his contract and he left the post.

He said he was at meetings where McBride?s contract was discussed.

"I was present at many of these meetings where it was unequivocal that Mr McBride's contract shall be extended until the end of the trial."

And, at an ANC meeting, Flusk had also been part of a discussion with Nkosi and deputy city manager Mkhabela Sibeko, who felt McBride should be retained for his skills and not "thrown out to the wolves".

Flusk said the Democratic Alliance in the council then said a whistle-blower had implicated metro policemen in "gun running, drug smuggling, murder and plunder" and they thought McBride was also involved.

Flusk asked McBride to investigate if three of his metro officers were indeed involved.

Previously, these officers had made statements after the accident that McBride had not been drinking after his accident, then when the DA matter was raised, they change their statements.

Nkosi decided to give McBride three months' special leave to focus on the case because of the distractions and the intense media interest.

He defended McBride's presence during the xenophobic attacks earlier in 2008 saying that afterwards, there was only one more attack in the area, from 32 before.

But the new mayor and ANC provincial officials wanted the McBride matter settled and Flusk himself thought that paying him while on leave was wasteful.

He presented risk assessment options to the council on the matter, recommending the "low risk" option of extending his contract, returnng to work and reappointing him in a different position.

The matter will continue on 29 October.