Senzo Mchunu has a reputation among his political peers in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal as a man of action.
For some, it dates to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when he was one of the leading organisers of the liberation struggle in what was arguably the most hostile region for such politics in South Africa — the then northern Natal and Zululand.
He and his comrades kept civic and political structures alive in the region under circumstances rendered highly dangerous not only by state repression but by the political violence between the ANC and the IFP.
In the democratic era, he is among a group of ANC leaders insiders credit for systematically turning KwaZulu-Natal from an IFP stronghold in 1994 into an ANC powerhouse by 2009.
Of course the Jacob Zuma factor had much to do with the ANC winning the province outright in 2009, but by 2004 the party had already become the biggest in the province — thanks largely to Mchunu, Sbu Ndebele and Zweli Mkhize — who were the party’s provincial leader and deputy provincial leader respectively in those years.
Is he then the right person for this vital portfolio at a time when the fight against crime ought to be at the centre of everything the government does?
In the run-up to the 2009 general election, when some of the party’s leading personalities seemed to take a back seat in the campaign — presumably because they were still reeling from the shock of seeing the party recall Thabo Mbeki from office — it fell to Mchunu, who was then the provincial secretary, to mobilise them.
The end result? No significant ANC figure in the province, no matter how ideologically close to the Mbeki camp they may have been, joined the COPE breakaway in 2008. The party increased its share of the vote in the province in 2009, helping to shore up the ANC’s national tally, which was severely hit by COPE support in Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and a number of other provinces.
However within a decade, Mchunu was to fall out with what had become the Zuma camp in the ANC. He was ousted as the party’s KwaZulu-Natal chair and was unceremoniously removed as premier soon afterwards.
In the wilderness, he found himself drifting closer to those who were preparing to launch Cyril Ramaphosa’s bid for the ANC presidency. He became known as the national organiser of what many initially dismissed as a hopeless campaign. Mchunu and his comrades were up against the mighty Premier League — a powerful cabal of several ANC provincial chairs and premiers, all completely supportive of the Zuma project.
It is now history that the Ramaphosa campaign triumphed, although Mchunu never realised his ambition of becoming the ANC’s secretary-general — controversially losing to Ace Magashule by a handful of votes.
With the above in mind, it is perhaps not surprising that in choosing his police minister for the seventh administration, Ramaphosa has gone for Mchunu. For the president, trust seems to be the single most important consideration when it comes to a police minister — and he trusts Mchunu, just like he trusted Bheki Cele before him.
Like Cele, he has shown absolute loyalty to Ramaphosa over the past six years and is considered by many to be in the president’s inner circle.
But unlike his more colourful predecessor, Mchunu does not come into the police ministry with vast law enforcement experience. Both men may share a background as school teachers, but Cele’s path to the top included periods as KwaZulu-Natal chair of the police portfolio committee, safety & security MEC and national police commissioner. Mchunu, on the other hand, has largely held public offices related to education, public administration and, more recently, water & sanitation.
Is he then the right person for this vital portfolio at a time when the fight against crime ought to be at the centre of everything the government does?
A former president once told this scribe that the one big mistake a head of government can make is to appoint a minister who considers themself such an expert in a portfolio that they start blurring the line between their role and that of the director-general.
There were times during Cele’s tenure as minister when he was accused of doing so.
Perhaps Mchunu, having never been a national police commissioner himself, will afford Lt-Gen Fannie Masemola (or whoever succeeds him) and his team space to do what they are trained and paid to do.
His reputation as “a man of action” should not mean that he should play sheriff, attending every crime scene regardless of whether his presence is needed or not. As police minister, the crucial role Mchunu can play in the fight against crime, is — through policy instruments and the provision of adequate budgets — to create an environment conducive for the women and men in blue to do their jobs.
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