Top cop vs ANC: Crime, power, and betrayal - WSM

This article was first published on PoliticsWeb.

Key topics:

• Police chief exposes deep ANC-linked criminal capture in justice system

• Mkhwanazi claims SAPS, NPA, judiciary infiltrated by corrupt networks

• Ramaphosa stalls on action; public rallies behind whistleblower general

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By William Saunderson-Meyer

In a week when South Africa’s attention was on foreign threats — swingeing US tariffs and a stumbling BRICS summit — the menace turned out to be locally manufactured. In KwaZulu-Natal, to be precise, a province with a long history of putting a spoke in the national wheel.

A charismatic young police general, dramatically flanked by heavily armed bodyguards, held a surprise press conference where he made explosive allegations of political interference and criminal collusion at the highest levels of the law enforcement and justice systems. This is a crisis that could knee-cap President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration in much the same way that State Capture abruptly ended Jacob Zuma’s presidency.

If the allegations are true — they viscerally resonate with the ANC’s record on corruption and institutional capture, as well as public perceptions of the rot continuing under Ramaphosa — they would expose the past six years of Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency to have been a hollow sham. Not only has the ANC government — and now the ANC-led Government of National Unity (GNU) — failed to bring to book any of the ministers and high-ranking officials identified by the Zondo Commission as deserving of prosecution, it appears to have allowed the corruption to spread.

If true, the revelations would collapse the already eroded moral authority of the police (SAPS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), as well as further tarnish the judiciary. The criminal justice system would have to be revamped from top to bottom a well-nigh impossible task. All key posts are filled by deployed ANC cadres. It is simply inconceivable that the crooked appointees will allow themselves to be ousted by the honest ones, even were the ANC as a party able to contemplate the organisation shredding itself to bits in this fashion.

The claims made by Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KZN Police Commissioner, are the stuff of nightmares in what purports to be a functioning democracy. Collectively, they detail a society effectively controlled by a criminal collective under the protection of Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and some of the police’s top brass. It is inconceivable — and as yet unexamined by the commentariat and opposition politicians — that such a degree of institutional capture could have taken place in the barely one year that Mchunu has been in office or that it would be confined to a single province, KZN. 

This is a crisis with deep roots. They trace back through a sordid lineage of compromised leaders: from Jackie Selebi, a former National Police Commissioner and head of Interpol, jailed for corruption, to Mchunu’s immediate predecessor Bheki Cele. Although the High Court set the finding aside on a technicality, Ramaphosa nevertheless chose Cele as Police Minister, despite persistent rumours of corruption and underworld ties. 

Mkhwanazi accuses Mchunu of disbanding the Political Killings Task Team, a highly successful KZN unit that had made hundreds of arrests while probing over 600 cases, mostly ANC-on-ANC killings linked to rivalries for the political offices that unlock access to patronage and lucrative tenders. He alleges that at the directive of Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya. 121 case dockets were removed from the team without explanation ‘to gather dust’ at SAPS headquarters.

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There are claims, too, of collusion with criminal networks and obstruction of justice. Mkhwanazi links Mchunu to politically connected fixer Brown Mogotsi and businessman Vusimusi Matlala, the latter under investigation for murder and money laundering. WhatsApp messages seized from Matlala’s phone indicate foreknowledge of the Task Team’s disbandment and discuss criminal funding of ANC political events.

After Matlala’s arrest, state authorities seized key exhibits from the Task Team and arrested its project coordinator on spurious charges. This crippled investigations into drug and organised crime syndicates linked to ANC figures. 

Mkhwanazi further claims that the corrupt networks, controlled by drug cartels and corrupt businessmen, extend into the SAPS and Metro Police forces, into the NPA, into the judiciary where there are judges on the take, and into the prison service. 

If true, the scale of infiltration alleged here — let’s call it what it is, State Capture 2.0 — would be a significant growth in malignancy when compared to its Zuma-era predecessor. The cancer would have metastasised. No longer confined to looting state-owned enterprises, but now burrowed deeply into the state’s security apparatus. The threat is now more dangerous than white-collar crimes of State Capture 1.0; this is an ANC protection racket that actively colludes with violent criminal syndicates that affect the lives of ordinary citizens.

Everything now hinges on how the ANC as a party and the GNU that it dominates, respond. The greatest danger is that standard ANC operating procedure — character assassination and impugning the whistleblower’s motives, using procedural ploys to deflect attention and derail accountability, and good old political spin — will prevail.

It’s already happening. Sibiya has labelled Mkhwanazi as a ‘warlord’, one of Ramaphosa’s security establishment Rottweilers, has accused the general of laying the ground for a ‘soft coup’, and the ANC Youth League is outraged not by his claims but by flouting SAPS protocol — a chain of command that is peppered with those he is accusing.

Mchunu has dismissed the allegations as ‘baseless’ and ‘wild’, and called for a ‘thorough and transparent investigation’, which of course is impossible to carry out while he remains in office. The Minister is adamant that he won’t resign or step aside and in light of Ramaphosa’s history of shielding corruption-accused ministers, it’s unlikely that the president will sideline Mchunu, even temporarily while the claims are investigated. 

Ramaphosa has described the situation as a ‘grave national security threat’ but, as is his custom, his words are ambiguous. Does he fear Mkhwanazi’s whistleblowing or the prospect of the justice system’s total compromise? Given that his response was to suggest a vague ‘thorough investigation’ and float the idea of a commission of inquiry, he seems more perturbed by the breach of decorum than the decay it exposes. 

However, the Presidency announced on Thursday, Ramaphosa has been ‘seized by the matter’ and after ‘applying his mind’ and holding ‘consultations’ with unnamed parties, ‘will take the nation into his confidence’ in an address to the nation on Sunday. This smacks of the kind of pointless pomposity of his regular Covid-crisis addresses to the nation. (Better stock up on open-toed sandals and rotisserie chickens while you can.)

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, too, seems to think that stalling tactics are the solution He told a press briefing that the ANC expects a ‘full comprehensive report from Mchunu’ and that the matter will be referred to the party’s oxymoronic Integrity Commission.

But this time the ANC may be misreading the national mood, which is distinctly supportive of Mkhwanazi. There have been spontaneous protests outside police stations, and social media solidarity, warning against state retribution towards Mkhwanazi. 

A range of parties — including the EFF, ActionSA, MK Party, and Rise Mzansi — have hailed Mkhwanazi as courageous and called for Mchunu’s suspension. DA leader John Steenhuisen was particularly forthright. He said Mkhwanazi’s revelations were ‘not wild allegations or motivated by personal grievances’ and merited ‘urgent, meaningful action’ from Ramaphosa. 

Particularly significant was the reaction of National Commissioner Fannie Masemola, whose own deputy, Sibiya, was implicated by Mkhwanazi. Masemola has made clear that it was not he who ordered the Task Team’s disbandment. He told a press conference that Mkhwanazi would not face disciplinary action and confirmed that the whistleblowing general’s security had been reinforced following threats to his life.

At home and abroad, the ANC-led administration faces the fiercest headwinds of the democratic era. Navigating them will require political courage, but Ramaphosa’s preferred strategy — hunkering down and avoiding action for fear of mutiny — is not just the wrong strategy; it’s the very reason for the crisis. 

This article was first published by PoliticsWeb and is republished with permission