The main element in the capture of the state by the Zuma-Gupta syndicate was the systematic neutering of law enforcement institutions. First the Scorpions were disbanded. One of Jacob Zuma’s first acts on ascending to the presidency was the appointment of the notorious criminal, Richard Mdluli, to the helm of the crime intelligence division of the SA Police Service (SAPS).
The destruction of the Hawks, the Scorpions’ replacement, and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is well documented. This, and the consequent impunity enjoyed by the Zumas, Guptas and many others, was achieved largely through Zuma’s decisive influence over the appointment of the leadership of each of these agencies. There is surely a special place in hell for the likes of Mdluli, Berning Ntlemeza (erstwhile head of the Hawks), and Shaun Abrahams, Zuma’s appointee as NPA head.
The Ramaphosa administration has achieved a measure of stability at the Hawks and NPA by the simple expedient of appointing honest and competent individuals to head these institutions, though they too continue to battle with appointments by their predecessors in these organisations.
However, while there is endless public discussion on the state of these particular law enforcement agencies, remarkably little has been said or done about the condition of the SAPS itself. Despite understandable public preoccupation with violent crime and rampant property theft, the only time official attention focuses on the uniformed police officers and detectives of SAPS is when they fail to crack a celebratory crime or prove incapable of dealing with major public order transgressions, or when they engage in particularly brutal conduct.
For the rest, the SAPS behemoth largely escapes under the radar of public scrutiny, despite the glaringly obvious indicators of rampant failure. The most telling performance indicators — the incidence and detection of murder and aggravated robbery — reveal that while over the past decade the incidence of murder has increased from 15,554 to 25,181 a year and aggravated robbery incidents from 100,769 to 132,788, the respective detection rates, which have always been low, have decreased 55% and 53% since their best performance years.
Little wonder that the proportion of the public who trust the SAPS has declined from a high of 47% in 1999 to 27% in 2021. And this while the SAPS annual budget has increased 86.5% over the past decade to R108bn. The middle class is able to retain comfort by self-privatising many of the public services the state is incapable of delivering effectively. This includes security — gated suburbs, ubiquitous security guards and neighbourhood watches, all serviced by private security companies.
But this is cold comfort. While infinitely safer than the residents of the townships, even the suburbs and businesses are increasingly beleaguered by violent crime and home invasions, not to mention that countrywide the huge number of police officers is outnumbered by loosely regulated armies of private security guards. Could these become the armed militias and vigilantes of the future, or maybe even the present?
Moreover, the nature of crime is rapidly transforming. The assassins of whistle-blowers are the hitmen of elaborate syndicates of public officials, politicians and self-styled businesspeople. No longer are the individuals and gangs selling narcotics and trading arms (often stolen from the police) isolated local phenomena, but simply the retailing end of an international global trade that has successfully infiltrated our ports of entry.
The zama-zamas occupy the lowest and most hazardous place on a totem pole the most lucrative places of which are peopled by global gold traders. Those who steal copper cables, crippling our logistics and communications services, are the labourers whose overlords keep a closer watch on the international copper price than they do on the SAPS officers. And all of these are abetted by sophisticated money launderers, skilled in the dark arts of cybercrime.
In short, organised crime — centralised syndicates invariably incorporating police membership at all levels — has arrived in SA with a vengeance. To counter this we not only need well-trained and honest cops on the beat (a common complaint from the public is collusion between police and drug dealers), but also competent and honest senior officers. Stories of corrupt senior police officers are legion — all but one of the police commissioners appointed since 1994, including our current police minister, has left the SAPS under a cloud before completing their term of office.
The task of reorganising the SAPS and transforming its culture is extremely complex. It is a vast organisation, with a characteristically closed culture. And it is a hazardous undertaking. Senior reformist police officers have been killed, probably at the behest of threatened fellow officers. The upshot is a senior officer cadre who do not trust each other, literally with their lives.
What is to be done? Start by purging the senior officer ranks — from brigadier upwards — of those who should not have been appointed to their posts in the first place. The Public Service Commission tells us that 24% of these officers do not possess the minimum requirement for their appointment. And if firing them contravenes the relevant labour relations legislation, buy them out with retrenchment packages.
This may sound like adventurous rhetoric. It is not. The SAPS is woefully underperforming with them; it can only perform better if senior officers possessed the necessary qualifications for their job. The SAPS should employ experienced human resources practitioners to set up and apply a credible performance management system.
Second, focus on arguably the two worst-performing police divisions, crime intelligence — a mission-critical function in combating organised crime — and the Independent Police Investigating Directorate (Ipid). The former has never recovered from the treasonous venality of Mdluli, who seems to have spent his time watching Zuma’s back and spending the secret funds to which he had access. The current deputy head of crime intelligence appears to operate straight out of the Mdluli playbook.
What does one say about a senior officer in our fight against organised crime who not only attends a function of a political party but shares a table with, and has his meal ticket paid for by someone who (allegedly) is no stranger to organised crime himself?
Ipid is intended to conduct independent and impartial investigations of identified criminal offences allegedly committed by SAPS members, another vital instrument in the fight against organised crime. Ipid appeared to locate its spine under the command of Robert McBride, but then — surprise, surprise — McBride fell out with the police minister and so lost his job, for doing his job.
Now legislation is in the pipeline that, it appears, will eliminate Ipid’s authority over the most senior ranks of the police. And not only is the accountability of police officers for criminal conduct in short supply, so too is accountability for disciplinary offences. The Institute for Security Studies tells us that the annual number of disciplinary hearings has decreased from a high of 5,786 in 2012/13 to 1,362 in 2021/22, with only 7% of these hearings resulting in punitive sanctions. And this in a workforce that now stands at 186,180.
Finally, civilian control over the SAPS needs to be dramatically strengthened. The Civilian Police Secretariat is not effectively used. It needs to be taken seriously. And communities need to get involved. Corruption Watch has built an interesting online tool to encourage community oversight of, and co-operation with, the police. How much more effective to have communities and police working together than to have our streets crawling with private militia?
And maybe we could appoint a police minister more interested in oversight of the police than in playing cops and robbers.
• Lewis, a former trade unionist, academic, policymaker, regulator and company board member, was a co-founder and director of Corruption Watch.
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