Beyond the politicking and noisy parliamentary debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address (Sona) lies a hard reality: much that was announced on the crime front repackages existing measures and ignores debilitating vacancies across the criminal justice system.
It’s difficult to understand the detail-less talk of “consolidating intelligence at national level”. State security — the state’s domestic, foreign and signals intelligence — is already national, based in the presidency. Ramaphosa, as president, chairs the national security council, which brings together intelligence, policing and defence alongside international relations, finance and others.
The National Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee is a statutory national structure with direct access to the president. As with military intelligence, police crime intelligence is run at a national level.
When Ramaphosa talks of prioritising “identifying priority syndicates” and getting specialised teams to dismantle criminal networks, one must hope the South African Police Service (SAPS) now has an organised crime strategy. By November 2025 it was still a work in progress. At a research seminar on organised crime, a police major-general talked of submissions to be made, of info dashboards and an organised crime centre.
Yet the so-called fusion centre was established in May 2020 to lead the anti-corruption and organised crime fight by bringing together police, state security, defence, prosecution services, the Financial Intelligence Centre and others, including the South African Revenue Service. Now it will be replaced by a yet-to-be-established new “overarching” anti-corruption body that’s a recommendation of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council that Ramaphosa appointed in August 2022.
This Sona announcement smacks of populist positioning to deliver something to everyone in an election year. Talk of re-vetting police and others is claptrap. The State Security Agency has failed to clear its vetting backlog for years. The presidency acknowledged this before parliament’s expenditure watchdog, the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) in September 2025, but emphasised an action plan with vetting field units in departments.
Coincidentally, the much-touted lifestyle audits are quite meaningless as accountability tools, as they are not published. Senior civil servants already make annual financial disclosures, though these are also confidential. Nothing was said about integrity audits, which, by testing ethics, behaviour and decision-making, are widely regarded as a more reliable indicator for good conduct in office.
But all of this is largely irrelevant if permanent appointments to top criminal justice system positions are not made. The Hawks have had an acting boss since Godfrey Lebeya retired on May 31 last year. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) only has two of four deputy national directors of public prosecutions, both acting. By law, the president needs only to consult his justice minister to appoint these NPA deputies.
But all of this is largely irrelevant if permanent appointments to top criminal justice system positions are not made.
Ramaphosa doesn’t even need to do that to appoint a successor at the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) now that its former boss, Andy Mothibi, heads the NPA. Instead, earlier this month the president made an acting appointment by moving the COO into this position, leaving the SIU with an acting boss, an acting COO and an acting chief national investigations officer.
Acting appointments do not create stability or certainty. So, instead of talking of “strengthening” the SIU, NPA, Hawks and other such entities, perhaps including the Investigating Directorate, Ramaphosa could have used his Sona to announce permanent appointments to give decision-making stability and boost criminal justice system effectiveness. Instead, he announced that his presidency is taking control with a dedicated team to push criminal justice reform.
What the Sona offered was repackaged measures, ongoing vacant posts and rhetoric that left this “most immediate threat” to democracy, society and economic development unchallenged. Confronting organised crime demands consistent, well-resourced action, strategic intent and clear strategic planning.
• Merten is a veteran political journalist specialising in parliament and governance.
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