Editorial: Fikile Mbalula must act to refocus police

With our law enforcement agencies waging war against each other and their heads either fighting to remain in office or fending off serious allegations of corruption and money laundering, there can be no hope that we will ever win the fight against crime.

The criminals, the corrupt, the scoundrels and the gangs that rule the roost in our streets are the only ones benefiting whenever the focus of our senior police officers, who have been entrusted with leading efforts to bring down crime, shifts away from the task at hand.

It affects the morale in the police service, which is gradually deteriorating.

The past few months have been dominated by news about two of the country's most senior police officials. Things came to a head last week when Police Minister Fikile Mbalula instructed elite crime-fighting unit boss Berning Ntlemeza to vacate his office immediately.

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This was after the High Court in Pretoria turned down his application to approach the Supreme Court of Appeal in a bid to cling to his position as head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks. Ntlemeza had been appealing last month's high court ruling which found his appointment was irrational and unlawful.

Instead of Ntlemeza gracefully stepping down and allowing the unit to focus on the job at hand, what followed was an exchange of strong words and expletives between him and the minister. He refused to step down. He insisted that he was still the head of the unit and he promised to challenge the high court's ruling.

As we were still reeling from that, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate dropped a bombshell earlier this week. It filed an affidavit in court with explosive allegations that the country's top cop, Kgomotso Phahlane, had received kickbacks for awarding tenders while he headed the police forensic services department. It also alleged that its investigators had received death threats and they believed that these were from people close to Phahlane.

Ipid, the country's police watchdog, is headed by Robert McBride. The two - McBride and Phahlane - have been at loggerheads for months now, pitting the entire SAPS against Ipid.

But crime remains a prominent problem.

Last year there were 14,333 reported cases of murder. About 500 of all murders reported in the first quarter of last year were committed using a firearm, according to the latest crime statistics.

South Africans are living in fear of being robbed in their homes. Despite assurances from the police that the number of housebreakings being reported has dropped, Statistics South Africa says citizens believe that property crime is on the rise.

This situation is undesirable.

We need Mbalula to show leadership now. He must move fast and suspend Phahlane. We cannot have a chief of police who is as tainted as Phahlane is. A new police boss must then be appointed as soon as possible.

Stepping aside will also allow Phahlane enough time to try to clear his name.