Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s claims of corruption in the highest echelons of our police service have rightly caused consternation. Yet, given lingering suspicions of collusion between elements in the police and the criminal world, the allegations do not come as a complete shock.
What got the nation to sit up and take note were the purported details of illegality dished out in a marathon media conference, as well as the rank of the man revealing them. Mkhwanazi is a very senior member of the police top brass, in charge of fighting crime in an often volatile, yet strategically important, province.
In addition, he’s gained something of a cult following for his reputed no-nonsense approach when dealing with armed criminals in particular.
The veracity of Mkhwanazi’s bombshell allegations is yet to be established. For now we can only speculate about his motive for seemingly risking all to bring the truth to light. His supporters see in him an upright citizen and loyal public servant. Sceptics suspect the dramatic claims to be a cynical offensive to forestall his own imminent arrest by colleagues.
A greater threat to our country than the activities of a few rotten apples in the top ranks of the police is the creeping dysfunctionality of the state itself
Presumably, it will all come out in the wash.
In any event, he may have inadvertently highlighted the elephant in the room, which is a greater threat to our country than the activities of a few rotten apples in the top ranks of the police — the creeping dysfunctionality of the South African state itself. Whether Mkhwanazi broke police protocol by speaking out publicly is a side issue that should not be allowed to distract us. It is, after all, common knowledge that protocol and disciplinary measures have been used to silence or remove those who resist or expose corruption in the state.
The key question is who in the chain of command knew about alleged untoward activities in the police? Did national commissioner Fannie Masemola (who promptly beefed up Mkhwanazi’s personal security) know? And did Masemola alert President Cyril Ramaphosa to the existential security threat, which includes infighting in the top ranks and a head of crime intelligence facing criminal charges? And what about the State Security Agency? Was it unaware of the associations between Senzo Mchunu and an unsavoury character called “Cat” Matlala, currently charged with serious crimes?
And, crucially, was the president blindsided by a security establishment which should be his eyes and ears? If the president knew, what did he do about it? If both Masemola and the president were in the dark, it should ring warning bells about the perilous state in which the republic finds itself. It would be a mistake to regard this debacle as an isolated case of a sole department in disarray.
Rather, it is symptomatic of a state that has become progressively dysfunctional, that is incapable of properly securing its own borders to start with. One that has no clue how many foreigners live here, or where. A state that is battling to provide basic, critical services such as water and electricity on a consistent basis, or if at all, caused by the failure to maintain infrastructure, let alone build it. It is a state that, four long years later, has proved incapable of bringing to justice the ringleaders of the July 2021 riots, described by the president as an attempted “insurrection”, which is no trivial crime.
Our state is being crippled from within by diminishing capacity due to the reckless, politically self-serving appointment of unsuited people to key leadership positions. And the state is being smothered by the strengthening grip of criminality over it. One has only to look at the increasing instances where public servants who try to do the right thing are brazenly murdered. Think whistleblower Babita Deokaran, 53, and, more recently, Ekurhuleni council auditor Mpho Mafole, aged just 47. Two relatively young South Africans who would have added value to the state and the country.
While senior police are consumed by palace politics, the country has placed civil servants at the frontline of the fight against corruption. They are forced to choose: raise the alarm and be murdered, or look the other way, which is a form of criminal collusion.
Unchecked, the trend will mean only the crooks and unqualified incompetents will be left to run the state. To run our lives.
Apropos the Mchunu case, the idea should be banished that it is perfectly fine for police officers and political leaders to befriend criminals, even if they are supposed “comrades”. What could they possibly have in common? Certainly not fighting crime? Fresh in our minds should be former police commissioner Jackie Selebi’s infamous declaration that the criminal Glenn Agliotti “is my friend, finish and klaar”. Or Jacob Zuma’s televised admission that the Guptas were his friends.
The kernel of the issue is that we are a nation in denial about our failing state; our failing country. We see the telltale signs everywhere, but naively cling to the forlorn hope that things will somehow get better by themselves, even as that hope is dimming fast in the civil service. Buying into the delusion that we are different and special, we seek comfort in the narrative of South Africans being “a resilient people” who can apparently overcome any challenge, with the Codesa negotiations, the so-called “democratic breakthrough” being touted as proof.
Yet, the more our leaders talk about a “capable state”, the more apparent are the signs of its enfeeblement and incapacity, which are dooming us and our children to perdition.
And if the state fails, either through capture by criminals or conflict in its security services, there will be no country left to live in.
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