Gen Khehla Sitole’s performance at the SA Human Rights Commission’s inquest into July’s deadly “failed insurrection” has thrust the spotlight on the already under-fire national police commissioner.
It was concerning that he failed to recall the number of people killed in Phoenix, Durban, during the riots — a troubling memory lapse given the intense, often racially driven violence that took place. It was 36.
He was also at times evasive, and his testimony was in stark contrast to later comments from KwaZulu-Natal SAPS head Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. While Sitole didn’t appear to take much responsibility for the police’s obvious failings, particularly when it came to crime intelligence, Mkhwanazi this week admitted that although cops couldn’t be blamed for everything, he took “full responsibility” for the loss of life in his province. His is a stance that should be welcomed, and one that his boss should have taken.
The revelation that Sitole didn’t have any post-matric qualification shocked many people. Sitole admitted, under questioning, that he didn’t even have a National Diploma in Policing — a qualification that most of his subordinates possess.
And while Sitole might argue that being a career cop offsets this, the confirmation of no qualifications from the man at the helm of the SA Police Service, with its annual budget of close to R100bn and a staff complement of close to 200,000, is deeply concerning.
While a tertiary qualification isn’t the be all and end all when it comes to proving someone’s competence, having an excellent understanding and knowledge of a particular subject matter is crucial to understanding and, in turn, leading an organisation as complex as SAPS. A formal higher education certainly wouldn’t go amiss.
Gareth Newham, the head of justice and violence prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, believes that a qualification is a crucial part of the armour that the national commissioner must have.
He said it was highly unlikely that the directors-general of health or education would get those positions without formidable tertiary qualifications littered across their CVs, but that this was allowed for the national police commissioner.
Instead, he said, there were only three criteria to hold the post: the person must be born in SA, older than 18 and not have a criminal record.
One could “throw a dart at a telephone book” and find someone who met these extremely broad criteria.
These are criteria that must be tightened if SA is finally going to have a properly qualified and suitable head of the SAPS.
Civil rights organisation Action Society SA also slammed Sitole’s lack of qualifications, questioning how it was possible for him to have been appointed in the first place.
“SA has not had one qualified national police commissioner in the past 20 years. Our country can no longer afford political appointments. We need the best of the best to protect families, specifically the women and children of SA. Citizens need accountability and transparent leadership,” said organisation spokesperson Ian Cameron.
But it was Sitole’s stark admission that there was no — or at least very little — crime intelligence related to the unrest that was gut-wrenchingly worrying.
“There was no intelligence report in relation to the upcoming violence. There was no report to explicitly say that this is coming in terms of this modus operandi. It wasn’t picked up by all intelligence,” he said, in a particularly damning admission.
What little info police did have was that which “was already there ... in public and operational domain”.
“It did not tell us explicitly about the unrest,” he said.
This utter failure of crime intelligence falls squarely on Sitole’s head, and he needs to be held accountable. He can — and did — speak of budgetary constraints on his particular policing division, but this is an excuse that doesn’t hold water. It is the national commissioner’s job to fix the problems where he sees them, or at least ensure that those capable of fixing them are put in place. That hasn’t happened, and South Africans are less safe because of it.
Sitole’s shocking showing at the SAHRC’s hearings on the July riots makes it abundantly clear that the time has long since past for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government to crack down on the country’s police force, starting at the very top.
It’s not just about qualifications, but about attitude and about having a force that South Africans can trust. It is time, as Newham suggested, that there is a “deep dive” into the hundreds of generals and brigadiers employed across SAPS to see how they were appointed and if they are actually doing their jobs.
It should start with Sitole. He must be fully assessed and, if he is found wanting, replaced with a truly capable woman or man in blue, who has a combination of learnt and on-the-ground knowledge, and who can handle the complexities of running a police force in a country beset with violent crime.
It is also vital that detailed and specific criteria be established for the national commissioner’s post to avoid the continuing situation of police commissioners who simply aren’t fit to lead.
The time for political appointments is over and if that means Sitole should be removed, so be it.
