Our nation's security requires brains

There is a troubling image deeply etched in my mind of President Cyril Ramaphosa addressing the nation, flanked by the heads of the defence force and the police, just as the July riots came to an end.

Ramaphosa made very serious statements about the causes and the identity of the people behind the riots while promising concomitant action. Well, not exactly his choice of words, but they fit the bill. 

What he said was important and requires a revisit in the wake of resurgent talk of possible bloodshed after a high court decision to revoke what we all knew was a phantom medical parole by Zuma's erstwhile spy boss, Arthur Fraser.

But, for me, it is the symbolism of the securocrats at the press conference that remains troubling.

The presence of Khehla Sitole, the national police commissioner accused of sleeping on the job while the nation burnt, was, if I am reading this correctly, supposed to send shivers down the spines of the  criminals behind the riots. They were to get the message that their banditry ends here.

Or perhaps it was a message to others within the government security structures — whose loyalty was as shaky as a fern tree in the wind — who needed to be reminded that with Sitole on Ramaphosa’s side no-one can touch our president and his government.

Recent revelations that Sitole does not have a post-matric qualification keep taking my mind back to that image of him as part of the fulcrum of the president’s armament.

Could it be that the president knew then that Sitole didn’t have a post-matric qualification but just hoped that his mere presence would create a veneer of invincibility? After all, South Africans don’t associate security might with intellectual or academic capability.

Or could it be that our president simply did not know that Sitole is unfamiliar with a lecture room and his interface with books is woeful? Or perhaps it was just Sitole’s title that mattered in this command and control environment. No?

But either way, Sitole at the helm of our police is symptomatic of a broader malaise afflicting our nation: we associate our safety and security with boorish or “skop, skiet and donner” behaviour rather than with intellectual conceptions of best practices in crime prevention.

The fact that there is no requirement for a post-matric qualification for someone in charge of a budget of R108bn and personnel estimated to number about 180,000 must concern us all.

We know too well the mess created in our country by many other candidates whose relationship with classrooms is suspect

A case will be made that his police experience must count for something. Whatever that something is, it can’t be a justification for not having a post-matric qualification for such a job.

Qualifications are not proof of competence, yes. Qualifications help us get a sense of a candidate’s proclivity to deal with complexity.

We know too well the mess created in our country by many other candidates whose relationship with classrooms is suspect. Just this week, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the infamous “acamedic” (sic), was ordered by the courts to pay back R11m he fraudulently paid himself as a bonus while SABC COO.

Zuma, another one whose relationship with school is almost nonexistent, was ordered this week to return to prison because his ill-conceived scheme with Fraser has unsurprisingly been exposed for what it is.

The ANC continues to be punished for entrusting him with matters of state that he outsourced to the Guptas.

Zuma’s reign and damage to the country’s economy and life are legendary. The point is that we carry deep scars from those who have not gone to school but were somehow entrusted with important institutions of state. 

Now, as fears of possible riots resurface after the court judgment against Zuma and Fraser, it is to the grade 12 graduate Sitole that Ramaphosa must look for security guidance. So when Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla ominously tweets “we see you”, as if to rally the masses as she seemed to do the last time the country was thrust into mayhem, our collective eyes are set on Sitole.

You’ve got to feel pity for all of us. We are helpless because we don’t think highly of the police, soldiers and our security. That’s an important fault line. Is it any wonder that our crime stats show, to quote Bheki Cele, that SA remains “a very violent country”?

While socioeconomic factors may play a role, it is, in fact, poor Sitole who must employ innovative thinking, know the latest techniques used around the world, develop bespoke methods for our environment, and show an ability to think ahead of sophisticated criminals.

Is it not clear that we are expecting much more than poor Sitole can do? Is the fact that our crime rate is getting worse and the police are not doing anything extraordinary not proof enough that they are in way too deep over their heads? What other signs do we need? How many more must die or be raped? How many mismanaged riots must we have before Ramaphosa realises that being surrounded by the likes of Sitole at a press conference engenders no confidence at all?

If anything, cynics might look at Sitole’s legendary failings and say to Ramaphosa: “Birds of a feather flock together.” Is it any wonder that our police stations are still randomly robbed, as we have seen recently at Malamulele in Limpopo, Badplaas in Mpumalanga, Alex and Midrand stations in Joburg?

The most scandalous was a robbery at Kuruman by only three people. Our police have become a bad joke. If a police station, a citadel of safety, can be robbed by three people, what is that supposed to tell us about how the police are led? Three people? Not even a carful of outlaws. How should we feel safe when our protectors can’t protect themselves from three Kuruman criminals?

If the highest you passed is grade 12, this is too complex for you. Yet we expect Sitole to devise strategies to reduce crime stats. Our nation’s security requires brains, not the bad jokes we play on ourselves.