Anyone with an interest in military history will know that behind the pain of defeat and the glory of victory will be a throng of vain, duplicitous and scheming generals. British generals and admirals fought constantly among themselves and for prime minister Winston Churchill’s ear as war broke out in Europe in 1939.
When the US finally joined the war against Nazi Germany after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, they battled constantly with their British counterparts over strategy and tactics. Washington committed troops to an invasion of Italy, a British idea, through gritted teeth.
What we’re seeing happening inside the South African Police Service daily now on our TV screens is probably as close as we get to a fight between generals, but it’s electrifying nonetheless, and it’s going to take time, and then some extraordinary historians, to make sense of it.
What we know now is what the British knew before the Americans joined the war to stabilise matters through overwhelming force — we’re losing. The war on violent crime in South Africa is being lost. So is the war on corruption (if anything it’s worse now than when Jacob Zuma was president). The number of attacks on women is worse too.
To be fair, you also have to ask why Mkhwanazi wanted that meeting in the first place
It’s easy to blame President Cyril Ramaphosa, who appoints thieves to his cabinet, or ministers manifestly incompetent in their jobs, but watching the police generals fight it out at an official commission of inquiry and in an ad hoc committee in parliament is in itself deeply depressing. With these guys in charge of our safety, what hope is there?
As we know, it all started with a letter from police minister Senzo Mchunu to the head of the SAPS, Gen Fannie Masemola, late in the afternoon of last December 31, ordering the “immediate” closure of the political killings task team (PKTT) nominally headed by the head of crime intelligence, Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo, and commanded by the provincial commissioner of police in KwaZulu-Natal, Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Mkhwanazi shook the country on July 6 by calling a press briefing, in camouflage dress and surrounded by heavily armed and masked officers, to denounce the closure of the PKTT and accuse senior police leaders of colluding with criminals and drug cartels. As a direct result, Ramaphosa created a commission of inquiry and put the police minister on leave.
Mkhwanazi is impressive; forthright and unflinching. He’s a folk hero among a population worn down by crime. Other officers appearing before the commission or the committee have not done so well. Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, the head of crime detection and one of Mkhwanazi’s targets, performed poorly before the parliamentary committee. Crime intelligence head Khumalo was hospitalised before completing his testimony to the commission. Masemola couldn’t get his story straight in parliament. None of them should be anywhere near a uniform, let alone a budget.
Mchunu, the suspended minister, testifying in parliament this week, tried to right the anti-Mkhwanazi ship but has huge gaps in his evidence. He concedes the decision to shut down the PKTT was his and that, yes, he wrote the letter on December 31.
But he cannot explain why he waited until the last hour of the last working day of the year to take the step, and without consultation. He addressed his letter to Masemola despite knowing the police commissioner was on leave. He asked for a preliminary response by January 20, just six days after Masemola was due back at work, and a final report just a week after that.
But why the rush? He offered no serious answer. He claimed Mkhwanazi had threatened him in a recorded phone call with an official, but could not find the recording. And when Mkhwanazi wrote asking him to convene a meeting with the police leadership and a “businessman”, Brown Mogotsi, known to both Mchunu and Sibiya, and who seemed to have appointed himself as go-between between the police and known criminal targets, Mchunu never responded.
Mchunu says now that including Mogotsi was impossible “as a matter of principle”, but he never bothered to tell Mkhwanazi that at the time. To be fair, you also have to ask why Mkhwanazi wanted that meeting in the first place.
Nothing is clear but for the fact that what we have here is a fight for power at the very heart of our state. It’s a real mess. Policing is the most fundamental authority of any government, and we may be losing that too. And ultimately this is all on Ramaphosa, which is not good news if you’re looking for answers or action.
We have no idea what he wants, other than to improve his political position ahead of ANC leadership elections in 2027, which he would want to influence. More and more he seems a lame duck, unable to control events at home or abroad. How does he want the police infighting to end? At this point, he may not even know himself.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.