President Cyril Ramaphosa this week acted with rather uncharacteristic speed in acting on the Madlanga commission’s preliminary report into alleged infiltration of the criminal justice system by criminal elements.
The commission, whose interim report was submitted in December, was established following bombshell claims by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi last July about collusion between police officers and criminal syndicates.
Directing acting police minister Firoz Cachalia and national commissioner Fannie Masemola to establish a special task team to investigate corruption allegations and acts of unlawfulness in the criminal justice system, Ramaphosa said he had accepted the commission’s recommendations and its referral of those implicated for “immediate” criminal investigation. He also called for “urgent decisions on prosecution”.
The commission, citing prima facie evidence of wrongdoing, has referred for investigation a total of 14 police officers (including two generals), as well as the Ekurhuleni Metro and its police department.
The president, known for his slow response to other pressing matters, has to be commended for responding swiftly to the Madlanga report.
The serious allegations being probed by the commission include criminality, corruption, fraud, perjury and even murder.
The investigating team that takes Ramaphosa’s mandate forward will need to be insulated from the cancer of corruption already infesting the service
Evidence before the commission, even before it has completed its hearings, suggests that criminal elements have spread their tentacles into the top echelons of the police.
It is particularly troubling that, as per evidence before the commission, even members of the police leadership have struck up relationships with people who stand accused of serious crimes such as murder. Such nefarious associations cannot but pose a threat to the proper functioning of the criminal justice system as a whole.
This can only erode public trust and confidence in the men and women in blue, many of whom, we believe, remain loyal to their mission.
Great attention will be on the investigating team that takes Ramaphosa’s mandate forward. It will need to be insulated from the cancer of corruption already infesting the service. Its work will have to be thorough and without fear or favour, irrespective of the seniority or political influence of those implicated.
Equal resoluteness will be required of the National Prosecution Agency, which will have to do everything possible to ensure that there is no repeat of those high-profile cases that have been thrown out by judges due to prosecutorial failings.
Critically, efforts will have to be redoubled to protect witnesses, who will be crucial to any successful prosecutions. At least one witness who gave evidence before the commission has been murdered, while others have expressed the fear of meeting the same fate.
While Ramaphosa has acted with relative urgency in responding to the Madlanga report, it has, of course, not escaped the public that those marked for investigation do not include big fish such as suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu, reputed to be a political ally of Ramaphosa, and suspended deputy national commissioner Gen Shadrack Sibiya.
At the end of the whole process, South Africans will need to feel sure that the police service is staffed by people who are ethical and are committed to their pledge to serve and protect the public.
Public trust in the police will only be fully restored through a transparent cleaning out of dishonourable elements at all levels who have chosen to collude with criminals to white-ant this crucially important national institution.
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