More than 30 years into democracy, the national and provincial leadership of the SA Police Service (SAPS) remains dominated by people whose careers started in bantustan and apartheid-era police forces.
Their attitudes, forged in the authoritarian, coercive policing of the mid-1980s, continue to shape today’s SAPS — and its resistance to genuine democratic reform.
Keeping politicians happy with obsequiousness, bodyguards, blue lights and, if necessary, standing like empty uniforms next to a minister, has given the SAPS slack reins.
Much attention has been given to the titillating details presented at the two inquiries into political meddling before retired Constitutional Court judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga and parliament. However, at the core it is all about retaining access to money and power.
The record supports this view. One-time national SAPS commissioner Khomotso Phahlane was suspended and ultimately dismissed in July 2020 for fraud and corruption following internal disciplinary proceedings.
His successor, Khehla Sitole, departed on March 31 2022 “by mutual agreement” with President Cyril Ramaphosa, after the courts found he placed ANC interests above SA’s in the saga of the R45m “grabber” or interception equipment at the 2017 ANC elective conference.
Coincidentally, one of his co-accused, SAPS deputy national commissioner Francinah Vuma, was suspended in July 2022 by current police boss Fannie Masemola for writing to Ramaphosa about alleged corruption and is set to retire soon.
Former SAPS crime intelligence chief Richard Mdluli was on paid suspension for about seven years before he was eventually convicted in November 2020 for abusing intelligence secret account funds. Fast-forward to June this year, and crime intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo and six others were arrested for appointing unqualified staff and irregular vetting.
Meanwhile, scrutiny and accountability are avoided using an old playbook. The State Security Agency (SSA) recently revoked intelligence inspector-general Imtiaz Fazel’s security clearance, according to City Press; the same happened to his predecessor, Setlhomamaru Dintwe, in late 2017. Both got too close to exposing malfeasance. Unlike Fazel, who remains suspended, Dintwe went to court, setting in motion steps that led to SSA boss Arthur Fraser’s removal to correctional services until his contract expired in September 2021.
The parliamentary joint standing committee on intelligence has been absent. Many of its annual reports, due every May, have missed this deadline over the past 15 years.
This is the backdrop to the two current inquiries.
Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu didn’t mince his words with MPs, insisting that the political killings task team he shut down ran counter to public finance law and failed the constitutional imperative of safety and security for all South Africans, not just “councillors and amaKhosi (traditional leaders)”.
Established after a presidential announcement in 2018, the task team’s lifespan was extended every year by the police commissioner and minister until 2022. After that it was irregular and unlawful under public finance law, Mchunu says, but was nevertheless kept in place and funded.
Two meetings with Masemola and other top brass preceded Mchunu’s 2024 New Year’s Eve directive to disestablish the task team. The president was briefed — and agreed. By mid-May 2025, Masemola and others had signed off on a new detectives organogram that excluded the political killings task team.
However, disbanding it meant its members would lose the additional monies they were paid. Documents show for the 2024/25 financial year, the political killings task team, then 120 strong, requested R94.8m, which covered overtime (R30m), accommodation (R40.8m), food (R15.1m), incidentals (R6.6m) and laundry (R1.2m).
From August 2025 to March 2026, documents show, the budget was capped at R27m for 56 members — less than the requested R31,172,426, which included overtime (R8m), accommodation (R13.8m), food (R5.2m), incidentals (R2.4m) and stationery (R700,000).
It should be no surprise that Mchunu’s intended restructuring and transformation triggered pushback. The blue line does what it always does: protect its own until political will forces change.
• Merten is a veteran political journalist specialising in parliament and governance.
