As the current phase of the Madlanga commission of inquiry draws to a close the nation waits expectantly to witness a collective “perp walk” of top cops, top robbers, top murderers, top kidnappers, top politicians and top public officials, some in designer clothes, some who regularly host extravagant weddings, others who flit by private jet to London for a weekend’s shopping, some with perfectly sculpted butts. Others not so much.
You couldn’t, as the saying goes, make this stuff up. My sympathy lies with the commissioners and the commission staff who had to wallow in the lies and filth of these reprobates for weeks.
But don’t hold your breath. This time around someone with authority and credibility should explain to the nation that an adverse finding by the commission against any individual is not a finding of criminal guilt. That is the exclusive preserve of the courts.
No matter how persuasive the evidence presented to the commission, no matter how telling a referral for prosecution by the commission, all the prosecution’s evidence, including that presented to the commission, has to be placed before a court and proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
It will be a considerable time before any of the witnesses who have appeared before the commission swap their ill-gotten finery for a pair of orange overalls. Given what this sleazy lot have been up to — such as “interfering” with witnesses — I would expect the courts to refuse bail more readily.
This reflects the dire state of our law enforcement authorities. However, green shoots are emerging in some parts of the family of institutions that make up our law enforcement system. A new guard is being installed at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), with the appointment of Andy Mothibi as national director a particularly good pick. If the quality of the leadership he assembled at the Special Investigating Unit is anything to go by, he is a wise judge of character and competence and he’ll do the same to resource the NPA.
The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption is clearly finding its spine. The new NPA leadership will undoubtedly be able to leverage off some of the good work — yes, good work — done by the outgoing leadership. Major amendments should be made to the NPA’s framework statute, but they’re widely accepted and straightforward.
The remaining reforms necessary at the NPA are elaborated in the report of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, and solutions are recommended. If the government and the legislature don’t get around to resolving these problems expeditiously, it can only be attributable to a lack of will and competence on their part.
The largest problem at the NPA is the continued presence of staff who are either incompetent dead wood or obstructionist hangovers from the Jacob Zuma era. The NPA should receive a financial allocation enabling its leadership to get rid of underperforming staff. If no legal route can be found to dismiss them, buy them out. The cost of keeping them will inevitably be far greater than the cost of retaining them.
This problem confronts the South African Police Service (SAPS) in buckets. The presidency and ministry of police have to tell us what they intend doing with the police officer corps. I make the mandatory bow in the direction of acknowledging that many officers, some of whom I have met, aren’t corrupt, aren’t murderers and aren’t moonlighting as tenderpreneurs, though I can’t help wondering why these honest officers didn’t blow the whistle on their corrupt colleagues.
Did they enjoy hanging out at parties thrown by their colleagues with known criminals in attendance, paying for the expensive bottles of scotch? Or knowing the ruthlessness of their corrupt colleagues, did they fear that blowing the whistle would limit their career prospects or, perhaps, their lives? While fear of the consequences of whistleblowing is understandable in the case of citizens, the failure of a senior police officer to report criminality is a serious dereliction of duty, if not complicity in the unreported crime.
The SAPS officer problem (unlike that of the NPA) is not a few rotten apples issue. The whole barrel is seething with toxic worms. I’ve said this before and will keep on saying it: all SAPS officers from the rank of brigadier and above should be required to reapply for their jobs. Those who cut the mustard should be confirmed in their posts; those who don’t should be transferred to more appropriate posts, demoted or fired.
Some of the worst of these will have been irregularly employed during the Zuma presidency anyway and could be lawfully dismissed. Others should be bought out. South Africa has witnessed the cost of crooked, incompetent police officers. The cost of ousting them from SAPS will pale against the cost of keeping them on.
A review board with a competent, dedicated secretariat should be appointed comprising senior, experienced HR managers and several people experienced in police management, and tasked with interviewing the officers. They should report to the minister of police, who should be required to act on their findings, with the negotiation of severance deals left to the minister and the secretariat. There are about 600 SAPS brigadiers and 150 generals (no, these are not typos). With the requisite will and urgency in cabinet the whole exercise — review and execution — should take no longer than three months.
But if you think we have problems, spare a thought for the US and, by extension, the world. Our president may sometimes take a long time to act, but he’s a perfectly sane and gracious man. Donald Trump, on the other hand, is widely believed to be clinically insane, and who could deny that after his conduct in the past month? But he’s received a snotklap in the Middle East, and finally the American electorate may act to constrain him.
But who, the anxious mice ask, glancing nervously at Mouse [US vice-president JD] Vance, will bell the cat? Meanwhile, I’m wracking my brain to think of a superhero movie or a science fiction novel in which the US president, his hand hovering over the nuclear button, goes insane. But then truth was always stranger than fiction.
• Lewis, a former trade unionist, academic, policymaker, regulator and company board member, was a cofounder and director of Corruption Watch.
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