After watching the performance of the heads of our security establishment at the Human Rights Commission hearings into the July unrest, South Africans will have every right to feel afraid — very afraid.
Appearing at the inquiry, those who lead the police — rather than owning up to their monumental failure to secure life and property during the politically inspired mayhem — seemed determined to achieve only the diversion of accountability from themselves.
The picture painted by their performance was one of a top police management in total disarray as the country endured the worst civil disturbance since 1994, events that shook our democracy to its core.
Testimony from police minister Bheki Cele, who said he was denied intelligence by police commissioner Khehla Sitole and other generals, revealed a shocking breakdown in the chain of command that should not be tolerated a day longer.
And what former defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi told the commission gave the impression of a national security establishment whose left hand does not know what its right hand is doing.
Little wonder then that five months after the violence, and much hot air and many promises later, there has been a spectacular failure to bring to book any significant culprits — particularly the organisers of the violence.
It is common cause that Ramaphosa ascended to power on a platform that embraced more than simply not being Zuma
Which brings us to the news this week of the departure of the head of the Investigating Directorate at the National Prosecuting Authority, Hermione Cronje. Her exit portends more instability in an agency critical to the criminal justice system and crime fighting.
The announcement came amid increasing public impatience with the glacial progress in bringing to conclusion cases against perpetrators of serious crimes, and ensuring they are punished. They include those implicated in the destructive state capture project under the Jacob Zuma administration, as well as those involved in the theft of public funds meant to fight Covid, this time on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s watch.
It is common cause that Ramaphosa ascended to power on a platform that embraced more than simply not being Zuma. His main promise was to fight corruption, including state capture, and to bring those responsible to justice. The citizenry dared to hope that the tide would finally be turned on pervasive malfeasance and the pillaging of public resources.
Alas, the euphoria of the early Ramaphosa years rapidly dissipated as it became clear that the expected progress was not going to materialise.
There is much merit in the argument that, to successfully fight corruption, Ramaphosa would have needed to dismantle much of the network that had captured our security establishment, particularly in the police. It is also true that, ours being a democratic dispensation, even when acting against rotten apples and nonperformers the president would have had to follow process and observe the laws of the country.
Still, what citizens expected of him was to move with more speed and show a greater determination. The exasperation arises from the fact that since coming into office the president does not have much to show in his purported fight to rid the country of corruption.
Indeed, he has made some seemingly inspired appointments, such as advocate Shamila Batohi to head the NPA, but he has also retained characters at the top of our police who are either incompetent or are themselves compromised in one way or another.
A nation that was once inspired by Ramaphosa’s talk of a “new dawn” instead has to witness how the Gupta brothers were allowed to flee the country and are now ensconced in the safety of faraway Dubai. With too many state looters running free locally.
To retain what little confidence citizens still have in him, the president must act now to show that his promise of a new dawn was not just idle talk. He should start by clearing out the incompetent from the ranks of the police leadership and begin to professionalise the service.
For the sake of the country it is imperative that he does so. Urgently.
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