Parliament’s ad hoc committee tasked with investigating allegations of corruption in the criminal justice system — an issue first raised in July by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi — entered its second week of hearings with suspended national deputy commissioner Shadrack Sibiya in the hot seat.
Mkhwanazi had held an explosive press conference on July 6, alleging that police minister Senzo Mchunu and Sibiya acted in cahoots with organised criminals when they pushed for the disbandment of the political killings task team that reported to head of crime intelligence Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo.
Two inquiries were launched in the aftermath of Mkhwanazi’s media briefing — the ad hoc committee in parliament and the judicial inquiry appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, which is headed by retired Constitutional Court justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
The Madlanga commission kicked off on September 16 with testimony from Mkhwanazi and national commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola. But it was Khumalo’s testimony that indicated the range and depth of the crisis. He outlined how five criminal cartels had infiltrated key state institutions, “capturing” senior leaders from police generals to politicians, magistrates and prosecutors.
The inquiry was halted after Khumalo fell ill ahead of his second appearance. He is expected to return to provide further evidence.
Parliament’s inquiry has heard evidence from Mkhwanazi and Masemola. It resumed on Monday with laborious testimony by Sibiya, who had been on the receiving end of allegations by the first two witnesses of interference and ulterior motives.
Last week police conducted a search and seizure operation at Sibiya’s home, confiscating communication devices and laptops. He is on suspension pending a disciplinary hearing.
While Mkhwanazi and Masemola oozed confidence in their testimony last week, Sibiya cut a nervous figure, failing to address questions directly.
Crucially, Sibiya admitted to knowing two figures central to the allegations against him and Mchunu. Mkhwanazi had alleged that Mchunu issued a directive to shut down the political killings task team in cahoots with attempted murder accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and an alleged ANC-linked intermediary Brown Mogotsi.
Sibiya pushed for the instruction from Mchunu to be implemented, despite hesitation from Masemola, the KZN police boss told the committee.
Sibiya initially said he did not know Mogotsi and had had to google him. Thereafter he conceded that he knew him, as Mogotsi had called to warn him that the intelligence division was investigating him. They subsequently met for breakfast when he was on duty at the ANC’s January 8 celebrations in Cape Town.
Sibiya also admitted to knowing Matlala. “In my entire life I have met Mr Matlala five times or less. We were not friends. It was just the beginning of knowing each other. I would say our interaction was very, very, very limited,” Sibiya said.
When pushed by evidence leader Norman Arendse about WhatsApp messages between Mogotsi and Matlala regarding their knowledge of the disbanding of the team, Sibiya floundered.
He told the committee that the pair’s discussion about the disbanding on January 1 likely resulted from them hearing about it “through the media”. However, the first media reports on the disbandment of the team appeared only on January 3. More reports followed on January 6.
Sibiya said his relationship with Mkhwanazi had soured after he approached the KZN police commissioner over the killing of musician Kiernan Forbes (known as AKA). Bheki Cele, then minister of police, had called Sibiya when there was an arrest in the case and questioned him about whether the police had the right man in custody. Sibiya approached Mkhwanazi, who retorted that he did not report to politicians.
We can create a different type of police organisation through the people who are brought on board … and then through managing those who are there in a better way
— David Bruce
Sibiya’s probing of an operational matter at the behest of the then minister provides MPs with some ammunition, as this is the allegation he faces linked to Mchunu.
Masemola stalled the implementation of Mchunu’s directive to disband the task team, and he and Mkhwanazi now allege that Sibiya subsequently ran ahead with it. Maj-Gen Petronella van Rooyen, head of the SAPS legal division, had already told the Madlanga inquiry that Mchunu had overstepped his mandate with this instruction — he did not have the legal authority to hand down instructions on operational matters.
Sibiya was set to be grilled by MPs at the time of the FM going to press this week.
In his evidence last week, Mkhwanazi was questioned about ways to address what was clearly a crisis in the upper echelons of the SAPS. In response, he argued for greater powers for provinces in running the police.
“The working arrangement is that there’s one man or woman in charge of the police in the country. And that person reports at national level, not at the provincial level. The only engagement with the provincial level is informed by a section in the constitution.
“But there’s no budget [for SAPS] coming from the province, no accounting to the province. Everything is centralised at the head office. There are too many problems — if we could decentralise some [functions] we would lessen the risk this country [faces,]” he said.
The idea was received warmly by DA MPs at the inquiry; the party has long been arguing in favour of greater powers over policing for provinces and municipalities. But the suggestion was opposed by the EFF’s Julius Malema, who said there was a constitutional imperative for a single police force.
Independent security analyst David Bruce has done extensive work on the idea of decentralisation. In 2021, he was commissioned to present a paper to the DA on the idea.
He says it is not necessary to change the constitution. It provides flexibility to the way SAPS is structured and governed. The minister is meant to set policy, but successive ministers have simply failed to do this adequately, he says.
“The reason there is such big pressure for decentralisation is partly because of the failure of national leadership. But centralised one-size-fits all approaches are also far from ideal. Some level of decentralisation might allow greater scope for innovation. The size of the SAPS is an impediment to innovation. Unless we can establish a central policy development capacity which is up to the task of national policy development — the constitution says this must take into account the needs of the provinces — some form of decentralisation might be our best hope.”
Bruce does not believe this can address the deep rot in the SAPS, or that a laborious process for setting policy is required in which the minister “consults and consults, and achieves lofty outcomes, such as suggestions to put in place effective leadership”.
Rather, says Bruce, the ministry should issue policy directives as the need arises — a process that would require a deep knowledge of the challenges.
It is interesting that Mchunu signed off on the national policy framework for policing just six months into his tenure as minister.
Mchunu was put on leave after Mkhwanazi’s allegations.
Bruce’s suggestion is that fixing the SAPS should start with a focus on its human resource function. For years, academics and experts have pointed out that the SAPS has degenerated into an “employment agency”, recruiting matriculants en masse with little consideration for skills levels or the character of those recruited. Questions about the consistency of standards across the provinces are also a concern.
“We can create a different type of police organisation through the people who are brought on board … and then through managing those who are there in a better way,” he says.
“There is no evidence of a very rigorous process in the choice of those who are selected.” Quality control measures in the current system are “uneven and inadequate”.
Modern crime fighting requires skills that range from those relating to technology to knowledge of financial systems. “These things require a different calibre of recruit. In an evidence-based criminal justice system the process requires a greater level of sophistication.”
Unfortunately, there is no evidence that anyone in the SAPS or cabinet is thinking seriously about these problems.
Even if they were, everyone’s attention is at present on the civil war in the police. And when the inquiries now under way have concluded, the risk is that outcomes would go the same way as those of the many other inquiries into policing have over the past three decades — simply nowhere.
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