The national police leadership faces another moment of reckoning in the coming week as national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola is due to appear in the Pretoria magistrate’s court on Monday on charges brought by the National Prosecuting Authority linked to the Medicare24 procurement tender.
The appearance deepens the crisis in the security cluster, with police minister Senzo Mchunu on suspension, as is Masemola’s deputy, Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he will deal with the matter in accordance with the law, but pressure is mounting to act decisively. The DA is among those calling for Masemola’s precautionary suspension while the case is before the courts.
Also expected in court on Monday is suspended Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi, arrested at his Gauteng home on Saturday morning by the police Madlanga commission task team on charges of fraud, corruption and defeating the ends of justice, with his appearance set for the Boksburg magistrate’s court.
Another senior Ekurhuleni municipal official was arrested on Sunday and will appear in court with Mkhwanazi, the South African Police Service (SAPS) confirmed, facing the same charges.
The ANC’s alliance continues to fracture before the 2026 local government elections. The century-old partnership between the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) is on the brink of collapse after Ramaphosa’s party invoked its constitutional rule barring members from supporting any party that contests it electorally, which the SACP intends to do.
A special national executive committee (NEC) meeting on April 10 deliberated on the political and organisational implications of the split, which it found cannot be reversed. SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila has shown no sign of reversing course, blaming the ANC’s posture in the government of national unity, particularly the DA’s participation, as the root cause of the rupture.
An ANC oversight visit to the City of Johannesburg this week will sharpen that tension, as the party seeks to reassert its relevance in a metro it no longer governs with an outright majority.
“On April 18, the NEC deployees met provincial executive committees and provincial task teams,” the ANC said.
“This will be followed by engagements with regional executive committees and branch executive committees at special regional meetings on April 19 as part of a co-ordinated organisational process to communicate and provide clarity on the outcomes of the recent special NEC meeting.
“These engagements are aimed at ensuring a uniform understanding of the NEC decision across all structures and ensuring organisational discipline and cohesion as the movement prepares for upcoming tasks.”
The DA enters the week with fresh internal architecture under its newly elected leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis. Veteran strategist Ryan Coetzee, who is a former DA CEO and one-time adviser to former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, starts work on Monday to manage the party’s ministerial caucus in the cabinet.
Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber will serve as Hill-Lewis’ primary presence in the executive, as the new DA leader has no intention of joining the cabinet, preferring instead to seek a second term as mayor of Cape Town.
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