Behind Mkhwanazi’s pre-emptive strike: John Matisonn

Key topics:Top police generals clash over corruption and succession in SAPSMkhwanazi’s press conference accused journalists and MPs of wrongdoingShootouts, extra-judicial killings, and police accountability under scrutiny.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up for the BizNews channel here..By John Matisonn.When General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi held his bombshell media conference on July 6, General Fannie Masemola, South Africa’s national police commissioner, was about to be arrested on corruption charges.His arrest was intended to follow General Dumisani Khumalo, head of Crime Intelligence, who was arrested a week earlier, on June 26, on the same charges – irregularly buying five properties worth R120m using a police slush fund. Khumalo, Masemola and Mkhwanazi are in one police faction in a conflict that has exposed the dark underbelly of police leadership. The other faction includes the police minister on leave as a result of Mkhwanazi’s allegations, Senzo Mchunu, and General Shadrack Sibiya, deputy national police commissioner.According to Sibiya, this fight has nothing to do with cleaning up corruption. “It’s about succession in the police.” .Read more:.UPDATE: Police Minister Senzo Mchunu denies ties to tenderpreneur at heart of explosive SAPS corruption scandal.Sibiya alleged that Mkhwanazi’s July 6 press briefing was aimed at blocking Sibiya’s potential appointment as Hawks head. But there is another appointment coming up – national police commissioner when Masemola retires in the new year. As deputy commissioner, Sibiya could be a contender there too. And it is also about corruption. The losers expect to land in jail.Once Mkhwanazi seized the initiative with his explosive claims, Masemola was safe a little longer. Touching the highest ranked police officer in the land is risky at any time. Now it would look like punishing the whistle-blower. Masemola had a lifebelt. No wonder M-Net’s Carte Blanche described the Mkhwanazi media conference as “a pre-emptive strike.” There is still a lot to unfold before we know who the good guys are, and even if there are good guys. Mkhwanazi presented himself as wanting nothing more than to be a policeman, with no political ambitions, who would give his last ounce of blood for a clean South Africa. To make his point, he had to break the rules. He argued plausibly that he had tried all the right channels – contacting the police minister, the president, and revealing many of his concerns in the parliamentary committee on policing. When nobody took him up, what was he to do?On the other hand, he conjured up worrying images with his camouflage uniform, surrounded by balaclava-wearing policemen. Disturbingly, in parliament he freely called for the imprisonment of a journalist and two members of parliament.He claimed the journalist, News24 ‘s Abram Mashego, was being “handled” by Crime Intelligence, headed by his enemy, General Sibiya. “There must be a heavy penalty for the mistakes done by journalists,” he said. “He’s one of the enablers.” “And there are many journalists. That’s why I’m calling for a state security investigation against them because I have a list of them, and there are a handful of them.”Media houses should dismiss journalists who were at fault to ensure accountability. Mkhwanazi said, “They must end up in prison.”A list of journalists? Imprisonment? This begins to look less like a humble servant of the constitution than he claimed.Reading through Mashego’s work, he has diligently followed this battle and reported it, long before most of us were paying attention. It’s all there. He has sources in both factions. He covered the arrest of Khumalo and flagged the expected arrest of Masemola in a report on June 29. Why did Mkhawanazi have it in for Mashego? He complained that Mashego asked him to comment on a report criticising him. That’s precisely what the South African press code requires him to do.But it turns out Mashego has been diligently reporting on Mkhwanazi too. Six months ago, on March 30, he wrote about Mkhwanazi in strong terms. “Detractors claim his team was seemingly trigger-happy and was conducting extra-judicial killings,” Mashego wrote. “Ipid, which is responsible for investigating crimes committed by the police, has raised concerns that the SAPS has eliminated too many suspects without due process.”Jennifer Ntslatseng, Ipid ex dir raised the growing number of suspects killed in shootouts with police in KZN. And suggested some officers might be meting out justice through the barrel of the gun. Multiple cases of suspects fatally wounded during alleged shootouts with police in the province.Mashego quoted Masemola defending them, saying the use of firepower is within the law. “As long as criminals attack police officers, the police will respond decisively as empowered by relevant legislation.”Mashego, and Ipid, are not alone. Other reporters who follow the justice system have made the same point. Mkhwanazi asked lawmakers to implement measures to “make sure a journalist is not hiding” behind a job title when they were instead reporting inaccurately to tarnish others.He does not understand what safeguards there are or has not attempted to use them. MPs were not spared. Mkhwanazi suggested that two of them, who he alleged were negligent in the way they handled sensitive information, spend time in prison to learn a lesson. But how did they get on his radar?.Read more:.John Matisonn: Is Mkhwanazi playing SA for fools? Respected crime expert thinks so..The DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard and National Coloured Congress’ Fadiel Adams have both investigated corruption in the police. That is their job. If he can show they broke the law, he should, but calling for their imprisonment is grossly improper. A country’s most senior law enforcement officers should have a clearer grasp of evidence-based allegations than that. A strong chair should have upbraided him.If the chair was properly briefed, he would also know that all three have put a spotlight on police generals’ actions, apparently doing their job. Allowing a takedown of them is an attack on our constitutional system. Leadership at the top is missing. The president, police minister and parliament should have acted long ago to nip this in the bud. They should have known and acted. All they had to do was read Abram Mashego.

Behind Mkhwanazi’s pre-emptive strike: John Matisonn

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