While the Madlanga Commission’s recommendation to criminally investigate five senior police officers for murder, corruption and perjury marks a watershed moment for accountability, the deeper question remains whether a police force riddled with factionalism and capture can credibly investigate and reform itself, writes Jeff Wicks.
Recommendations out of the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry represent a nascent move toward accountability and reform, as five high-ranking cops face criminal probes for perjury, fraud, corruption, and murder.
Testimony before the commission has, since its establishment, exposed the upper echelons of the SA Police Service as inept, fractured, politically swayed, and pliant to men who have been framed as underworld actors.
This daily horror show has made a case for this process, intended to rid the ranks of bent cops and those bad actors who have bought them off.
The referrals made by the commission, which charge immediate criminal investigations and prosecutions where the evidence supports them, present a watershed moment.
‘Act with speed’
They signal an expediency that we did not see during the Zondo Commission and a range of others.
On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa urged law enforcement agencies to act with speed in the investigations for the sake of restoring public trust, battered by the bombshell allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Ramaphosa instructed that Police Minister Firoz Cachalia and national police commissioner Fannie Masemola assemble a special team to launch the probes. The head of the team will report directly to Masemola.
READ | Senona among 5 cops to face charges as Ramaphosa acts on Madlanga Commission’s interim report
Among the implicated cops is KZN Hawks boss Lesetja Senona who, in his sweat-laden interrogation before the commission, exposed himself as a liar. And a bad one.
The central issue of contention is his cosy relationship with his “brother”, Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala. The pair held court regularly. Senona used his sway to arrange meetings for Matlala with other police commanders. Senona sent the underworld don confidential documents, dockets and the personal information of police officers.
When answers would amount to an admission of guilt, either of criminality or misconduct, he withered. He could not remember. He wasn’t sure. He obfuscated to the point that commissioners admonished his chicanery.
Promising signs
The other top cops are Major-General Richard Shibiri, Brigadier Mbangwa Nkhwashu, Brigadier Rachel Matjeng, and Sergeant Fannie Nkosi – with prima facie evidence that the quintet be probed on charges of perjury, corruption, fraud, and murder.
Also in the crosshairs are EMPD chief Julius Mkhwanazi, officers Bafana Twala and Aiden McKenzie, former city manager Imogen Mashazi, head of human resources Linda Gxasheka, and the metro’s head of legal, Advocate Kemi Behari.
That these recommendations would be made and accepted while the commission is in process is remarkable.
It speaks to an urgency in acting, which is justified when one considers what is at stake: the capture of the police.
But this should not be seen as a panacea.
It is trite at this point that the police, especially its upper management, is riven by factionalism and roiled by claims of infiltration, malfeasance, and criminality.
Now this same organisation will need to investigate their own. Their findings will be issued to Masemola, who himself is a player in the warring camps competing for control of the police.
At face value, the commission has delivered on its mandate. It has given the South African public a rare view of the dysfunction in the police, which sees generals holding whiskey-fuelled meetings with gangsters, instead of fighting crime.
It has taken the first steps toward action.
But this is where things get sticky.
Can a broken police force, with legitimate questions about probity, cleanse itself and build an organisation that keeps every citizen safe? Early signs are promising. For true, lasting reforms, time will tell.
- Jeff Wicks is a News24 investigative reporter.
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