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In a constitutional democracy, law enforcement must serve justice, not political masters.
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In a country where silence too often lubricates the machinery of impunity, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner of police, has done something both brave and profoundly unsettling – he has spoken.
At a press briefing that rippled across the nation, Mkhwanazi accused the minister of police, Senzo Mchunu, of unlawful and inappropriate interference in police operations. He alleged that instructions were delivered not through official channels, but via furtive WhatsApp messages and late-night phone calls, bypassing formal structures and undermining the constitutional independence of the South African Police Service (SAPS). These were not the whispers of an aggrieved subordinate. They were the clarion call of a man unmasking what he saw as a quiet coup against lawful authority. More than an institutional squabble, Mkhwanazi’s allegations strike at the marrow of South Africa’s fragile democratic project, the systematic politicisation of the police.
In a constitutional democracy, law enforcement must serve justice, not political masters. Yet, here we are, listening to the unvarnished testimony of a senior officer that reads like a scene from a political thriller, and which, if proven to be true, will have dire consequences. The implications of the allegations are that the structural vulnerability of our police force is being exploited brazenly by criminal syndicates, particularly drug cartels that operate with disturbing impunity in provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. There, the lines between crime and state have blurred into a dangerous haze. In the Western Cape, endemic gang violence, nurtured by the drug economy, thrives amid recurring allegations of police complicity: officers who accept bribes, offer protection and, in some cases, actively participate in distribution networks.
The findings of the 2017 Khayelitsha Commission and the 2021 arrest of 12 officers caught escorting drug shipments remain as damning, indelible stains on the uniform. KwaZulu-Natal is no different. The Moerane Commission unearthed a tangled web of political assassinations, taxi violence and organised crime, much of it lubricated by the narcotics trade. Arrests of police officers found escorting drug convoys or protecting underworld kingpins only further underline the rot Mkhwanazi is confronting.
Mkhwanazi’s allegations do not come in a vacuum. They arrive after years, decades, of public disillusionment with the SAPS. From the state-sanctioned massacre at Marikana to the anarchy of the July 2021 unrest, from widespread corruption to everyday service failures, the police have too often become a symbol of betrayal rather than protection. The politicisation of the police is not new, but has rarely been named so plainly by someone so senior.
The implications are stark. If those entrusted with the highest ranks of law enforcement cannot operate without fear or favour because they fear political retaliation, then our entire criminal justice system is endangered. When criminals know that their true protection lies not in the shadows but in party corridors, then the rule of law has ceased to be a principle; it becomes a corrupt transaction. And within that vacuum of accountability, drug cartels flourish. Political interference does not simply corrode morale, but opens the floodgates for organised crime. The instability it creates is not incidental but structural, providing fertile ground for cartels to embed themselves within compromised institutions – what we term state capture.
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President Cyril Ramaphosa must act. He must speak with clarity and resolve.
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President Cyril Ramaphosa must act. He must speak with clarity and resolve. He must issue an unequivocal statement affirming and supporting commissioner Mkhwanazi’s concerns: rooting out internal corruption within SAPS and defending its constitutional independence. He must offer the commissioner full protection from reprisal, whether overt or covert. Ramaphosa must signal, within 24 hours, that whistleblowing allegations of this kind are not disloyalty, but a public service of the highest moral calibre. He must not hide behind a bureaucratic wait for “full evidence”. He must act on principle, and he must act now.
This cannot be the president’s burden alone. Political parties across the spectrum, civil society organisations, religious institutions, trade unions, business chambers and ordinary citizens must rally behind Mkhwanazi in defence for the possibility of a clean and effective state. If there is to be even a glimmer of reform within the police, minister Mchunu must be relieved of his duties to prevent any interference with the investigations. The message must be clear: no political figure is beyond scrutiny when the democratic fabric of the state is at stake.
Parliament’s portfolio committee on police must immediately convene a public inquiry into Mkhwanazi’s claims. The Independent Police Investigative Directorate must launch a transparent, far-reaching investigation into political interference, not just in KZN, but across the nation. Crucially, that inquiry must illuminate the dangerous nexus between political meddling, police corruption and the operations of drug cartels. This is not merely a crisis to be managed, but an infection to be purged.
Organisations like Corruption Watch and Freedom Under Law must seize this moment to amplify the stakes: the politicisation of the police is not a procedural concern, but a democratic emergency. And we, the public, must not retreat into cynicism. We must resist the weary temptation to dismiss this as mere “ANC infighting” or “how things are”. To normalise such abuse is to surrender the very notion of a just state.
Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi may not have sought to become a national symbol, but that is precisely what he has become. He stands not as a paragon, but as a principled actor in an increasingly compromised arena. In calling attention to matters of corruption and political manipulation, he has thrown down a gauntlet that tests all of us as citizens, leaders, institutions. Will we stand with those who speak truth to power? Or will we leave them to face the consequences alone?
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In the weeks and months to come, Mkhwanazi’s courage must not be allowed to fade into the background hum of our news cycle.
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In the weeks and months to come, Mkhwanazi’s courage must not be allowed to fade into the background hum of our news cycle. If it does, we will have lost more than a commissioner. We will have squandered a rare and crucial opportunity to reassert the moral compass of our law enforcement institutions. We will have ceded the fight against police corruption, the very artery through which organised crime continues to bleed communities dry, from the Cape Flats to Umlazi.
This is our test as a nation – and for President Ramaphosa, who has long savoured the optics of anti-corruption. This is his moment to go beyond appearances. If ever there was a moment to prove that he is serious about draining the swamp and enforcing government accountability, this is it. His response will not simply shape the future of SAPS, but will echo into the very question of whether South Africa’s democracy can survive the entanglement of crime, corruption and state power.