The Road to Dictatorship in South Africa

By Chris Steyn

“The Road to Dictatorship in South Africa”.

That is the heading of an open letter to Parliament from veteran violence- and police monitor Mary De Haas in which she warns that free and fair elections are in jeopardy and pleads for immediate action.

She writes how Minister of Police Bheki Cele does “exactly as he pleases, unsanctioned by Parliament or the President”.

De Haas charges: “It is he who facilitates, and is responsible for, the escalation in violent crime while taxpayers pay for his extravagant travel and subsistence expenses, and other grossly irregular expenditure.”

She implores Parliament to order the Minister to stop all operational involvement and interference “immediately”, and hold him accountable personally for all travel and subsistence costs he incurs in performing duties “which are so blatantly unconstitutional”.

“Regarding his expenses, please call for an itemised breakdown, including whether it is true that he spent at least R5 million in catering during a two week stay in the Eastern Cape in latter August 2023.”

De Haas writes of increasing “political meddling”, especially in SAPS Crime Intelligence. “Neither of the CIS management members doing Cele’s bidding, including financially, have security clearances from State Security. One, who has an outstanding criminal case against him, is reportedly a close family relation of the minister. He manages CIS finances, including the Secret Service fund.”

De Haas describes how the increased politicisation of the SAPS since 2009 has continued, “with the baton having passed from (Jacob) Zuma and (Ace) Magashula to Cele, “with their appointees now running the police nationally”.

“Under Minister Cele’s hands-on leadership, corruption rules the SAPS. Over 4000 members, some in senior positions, have criminal convictions, many of the trainees entering the system recently have bought their way into it, and in one year alone 700 guns disappeared from SAPS custody.”

De Haas laments the fact that few members of the public – or even the media – seem to challenge the truth of what Cele says “despite his having been dishonourably discharged as National Commissioner SAPS for, among sundry other things, lying under oath”.

“He also lies about his Struggle credentials. Although there are criminal investigations against him, he has, for some inexplicable reason, not been charged together with former KZN Commissioner (Mmamonnye) Ngobeni and businessman (Thoshan) Panday for the 2010 World Cup tender which he personally signed off on.

“Despite his dishonourable dismissal, Cele even signs himself on IPID reports as ‘General Cele’ and, while telling police to ‘shoot to kill’ also oversees investigations into these killings!”

On the consequences of the criminalisation of the State, “led by the SAPS and its Minister”, De Haas writes: “While members of Operational Response Teams travel with the Minister, there is no deployment of ORS – with water cannons – or dog units, to deal with life-threatening criminals…

“According to a senior SAPS member, a big company in which the minister’s father-in-law is a management member, has been given the use of six SAPS vehicles, despite it being well known that the police are short of vehicles, many of which are not properly maintained (management’s fault).”

Writing about one mass shooting after another in KZN that is predicted to be one of the more closely contested provinces in next year’s elections, she notes: “It is also the home of taxi hitmen and probably the most powerful, and politically well connected (including to the minister) taxi boss. Whether the minister’s known friendship with a KZN based trucking magnate (an Apartheid policeman convicted for drug dealing, now apparently employed by CIS) had any bearing on his failure to request SANDF deployment timeously in July 2021 is not known.

“The unbridled illegal conduct of the Minister of Police, together with the sinister new IPID (Independent Police Investigative Directorate) bill – and the failure of Parliament to pass legislation to restore civilian oversight of the State Security deemed urgent almost five years ago, together with the state’s lack of transparency and accountability – is the stuff of which Police States are made, and the self-aggrandising conduct of the Minister is reminiscent of that of dictators.

“Obviously, the buck stops with the President (Cyril Ramaphosa) who appointed Cele (who is known to overrule him). He also reportedly shows reluctance to authorise SIU investigations into the police. The President must be held to account by Parliament for his failure to deal decisively with his Minister, and the threat he poses to the security of the country and its residents.”