Editorial: Brazen OR Tambo heist shows the rot in SA's security

There are so many unanswered questions surrounding the daring robbery at OR Tambo International Airport this week.

Predictably, police management has reacted by forming yet another "task team" to investigate the theft of millions of rands right under the noses of the various state and private security agencies operating at this national key point.

It is the hope of every law-abiding South African that the criminals responsible for this act of thuggery will soon be apprehended.

But, as we all know, police task teams have acquired the same reputation as the commissions of inquiry set up by the president — they seldom result in criminal prosecutions.

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That having been said, we hope this one will be the exception to the rule.

Beyond the investigation into what happened at OR Tambo on Tuesday night, it should be of grave concern to all that, once again, the country's security agencies appear to be ill-equipped to deal with such threats.    

What is the point of declaring the airport a national key point if its security is so porous that it endangers the lives of those who use it? Mind you, this is not the first time a heist of this nature has taken place at the airport.

The few details that have been pieced together about this robbery suggest collusion, or even active participation, by police and other state security personnel in the crime.

At the heart of it all is a state security cluster that is collapsing because of political interference and high-level infiltration by criminal networks.

To fix the problem, South Africa cannot just focus on rooting out those men and women in blue caught on the wrong side of the law. This must start at the top with political leadership dedicated to tackling criminality without fear or favour.

However, in David Mahlobo, we have a minister of state security who thinks his only job is to feed the president and other senior politicians with imaginary stories of how "foreign governments" are pushing a "regime change agenda" in the country using opposition parties, the media and civil society organisations.

As a result, the intelligence services have taken their eyes off the threat that South Africans are confronted with almost daily: violent crime and the syndicates behind it.