MAKHUDU SEFARA | Good cop, bad cop? It’s not that simple

In dramatic testimony this week, the head of crime intelligence, Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo, staged a striptease of a different kind, gradually revealing details of infiltration of the police by what he called the “Big Five” drug cartel.

The Madlanga commission of inquiry had to adjourn when Khumalo fell ill after his second appearance, unleashing a frenzy of speculation about whether he had been poisoned or whether his blood pressure had gone through the roof. His health has become something the state must protect.

While the appearance by the officer who started it all with his allegations against police minister Senzo Mchunu and others, Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, was more performance than substance, Khumalo, in his brief testimony so far, has done the heavy lifting and put meat on the bones.

We were given the fullest picture yet of how murder-accused Vusumuzi “Cat” Matlala fits into the crime syndicate picture. Ditto Katiso “KT” Molefe, notorious acquaintance of the PA’s Kenny Kunene. The WhatsApps shared with Madlanga provided rare insights into who’s who in the police zoo, with Gen. Feroz Khan’s alleged “special relationship” with crooks raising questions about how he can still be leading police counterintelligence.

But the elephant in the room is Gen Fannie Masemola, the country’s top cop. When young and enthusiastic South Africans join the police, many have the ambition of rising to the position Masemola occupies today. For them, Masemola epitomises all that is good about being an officer. He surely ought to be brave, courageous and worthy of emulation.

Yet, according to what we have heard, his courage apparently failed him in the face of pressure from Mchunu

Yet, according to what we have heard, his courage apparently failed him in the face of pressure from Mchunu.

Here was the man who, administratively, is at the very top of the country’s policing structure, telling the commission that the instruction to disband the political killings task team (PKTT) in December 2024 constituted executive overreach or “total encroachment”, which, he added, flew “in the face of the police’s mandates”.

This, of course, means it should have been resisted, but Masemola agreed to dismantle the PKTT slowly, or by what he termed a “phased-out approach”, as if this would make the illegality eventually legal. Does it make a difference to Masemola if a crime is committed fast or in phases? Right here is where our policing problems start. If we needed evidence for why Masemola’s retirement must be expedited, this was it. We can make excuses about how difficult it is to say no to a political principal, but the country’s top cop must be the embodiment of courage. If he can’t stop illegality, what hope do the thousands who report to him have of doing so?

Masemola didn’t cover himself in glory, and we have yet to even hear from the other side – Mchunu (he is suspended) and deputy commissioner Shadrack Sibiya. Khumalo’s appearance this week shows there’s going to be blood on the floor for both sides. I understand he still has several strands of WhatsApp chats to go through that will take several days, apart from what he will say in camera. It will be a tall order for Mchunu to recover from this.

The irony of the whole thing is that politically, Mchunu could still bounce back to stage a daring run for ANC leadership. Remember ANC veteran Zweli Mkhize, and how being fingered in the Digital Vibes saga was meant to politically bury him? But at the last ANC conference at Nasrec in December 2022, he emerged as the biggest challenger to President Cyril Ramaphosa, losing by 579 votes in a contest in which more than 4,000 were cast.

Remember, too, how Jacob Zuma was elected president regardless of a rape scandal and pending fraud and corruption charges? It doesn’t make it right, but it shows that when it’s crunch time, people (in and out of the ANC) disregard what ought to matter. What ordinarily seems a source of embarrassment becomes street-cred in murky ANC politics.

As Mchunu contemplates the evidence against him, we must remember that the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) must still take the stand and tell us what it knows about Khumalo and why he was arrested in dramatic fashion at the OR Tambo International Airport nine days before Mkhwanazi’s shock press conference. The Idac may also need to tell us whether Mkhwanazi, too, faced arrest, and, if so, on what charges. Was his media conference a call for help? While Idac has said there is no warrant of arrest for Masemola, it did not explicitly say he was not under suspicion. What Khumalo’s teaser has shown is that the rot does run deep. In the end, it seems, we must be prepared for a thorough overhaul of the police.

If the commission finds that any or all among Masemola, Khumalo, Mkhwanazi, Khan, Mchunu and Sibiya are rotten to various degrees, they must make way. What we must be careful of in this saga is creating a false binary of angels and devils. Each of them must account for their actions. No state organ – SAPS or Idac – must be inhibited from acting on evidence, regardless of who is implicated. Our democracy demands no less.

While Ramaphosa’s decision to establish the Madlanga commission remains correct, we must never fool ourselves into thinking that the commission will be a panacea for the country’s rampant criminality. Getting the right people in the room is the first step. Doing the actual job of fighting crime and, importantly, winning, is what matters.