LUCKY MATHEBULA | The true test of Mkhwanazi’s evidence

Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has crafted a space for himself as an opinion maker in the management and direction of policing in South Africa.

He has assumed authority on police practice in a country where shallow understanding of policy rules professional spaces. Endowed with the moral force gained by fighting crime, he has enough social capital to be a towering moral voice on policing and, by default, public service. His command of policing has endeared him to a society deficient in political leadership.

While Mkhwanazi has raised several thematic issues regarding the administration of the state, he comes across as a well-groomed securocrat. By his own admission, he reveres that approach to policing. He has had three national opportunities and platforms on which he has expressed his discontent with the media and how, in his view, it has been captured.

The general decries the human rights-driven policing approach that emerged in post-apartheid South Africa. His preference for secrecy endangers transparency, and he should recognise that press freedom and the openness of parliament have provided him with the platform he has used to reveal the alleged corruption in the criminal justice system.

One of the fundamental roles of South Africa’s democratic and constitutional order is to empower its public service to loyally implement government policies. This does not exclude the police from ensuring the media’s rights to report are adequately protected. Such responsibility should not be viewed as a means to an authoritarian end, but as an expression of South Africa’s democratic character.

The hype surrounding Mkhwanazi’s exposés should serve as a foundation for fostering a transparent culture in the public service.

As the glory of exposing possible collusion between certain executive authorities and the criminal underworld settles in his person, we as a society should pay attention to the significant and dangerous gains this process might be accruing to a securocratic-minded police cohort longing for a “skop en donner” police force. The general should ensure that the confidence of his whistleblowing does not intoxicate him into thinking like a junta leader.

Authentic public service leadership is built on a social contract that respects the entirety of the constitution. Human dignity, social and economic justice, and human rights are the foundation of any exercise of authority.

Our democracy does not permit public servants, particularly in justice and security, to decide not to disclose certain information to the public. The SAPS’s culture of secrecy has evolved into a cult of impunity, relying on corrupt enablers, some of whom may include senior figures or those close to them.

 Likewise, Mkhwanazi and the transparency activists should recognise that, while advocating for transparency builds credibility, it does not grant unlimited permission to reveal everything. Amid a high corruption index, fierce debates over what is private or public highlight the urgency to make decisions that serve current and future needs.

In politics, when information about matters of public concern is due but not released, a crack appears in the foundation of the state-citizen relationship. The hype surrounding Mkhwanazi’s exposés should serve as a foundation for fostering a transparent culture in the public service. It should be so vibrant that delivering bad news becomes a regular part of government business.

The Madlanga commission is expected to determine whether those the general accuses did indeed commit crimes. To date, and possibly because the actual criminal dockets are live for adjudication by courts, Mkhwanazi has focused most of his evidence on motive. As a society, we hope to understand what was permissible, prescribed and proscribed in police minister Senzo Mchunu’s actions when he ordered the closure of the political killings task team (PKTT).

Given the original powers to issue policy directives derived from the authority vested in Mchunu, what is the extent of breach or unlawfulness in the letter Mchunu wrote to disband the PKKT? On the substantive issues of motive, which are profoundly subjective unless the live dockets prove otherwise, Mchunu might have the burden of demonstrating the lawfulness of his decisions.

Mkhwanazi’s accounts, which reveal how internal enablers within the police have compromised the country’s policing, might contain facts that need to be tested in court. Mchunu’s response to the allegations will be crucial. At this stage, we have only Mkhwanazi’s interpretation.

Without diminishing the general’s courage in summoning journalists to a press conference, the actual test will be if his evidence results in convictions. His willingness to challenge the system extends beyond police and criminality; it has highlighted how normative executive authority decisions are. From this debacle, new practices should be developed for policing and public service as a vocation, underlining the situation’s urgency.

• Mathebula is the head of faculty, people management, and founder of The Thinc Foundation, a think-tank based at the Da Vinci Institute