When Ulysses is unavailable, the ordinary mortal who gets to work on one corner of the Augean Stables is to be commended, puny though his or her efforts may be seem relative to the task at hand. It is in that sense that we offer our congratulations to Sydney Mufamadi’s Ministry of Safety and Security for its investigation into the Mail & Guardian’s allegations of foot-dragging by the National Priority Crimes unit under the command of Assistant Commissioner Karel `Suiker’ Britz. The most heartening aspect of the inquiry (the findings are reported on PAGE 9) was that it was held at all. It is a mark of the pace and magnitude of change in this country that when a newspaper expresses concern about the conduct of a senior police officer, the responsible ministry should order a high-powered investigation and then publish a frank account of its findings. At the same time, the findings of the Britz inquiry should not be allowed to give rise to hopes that the fabled stables are anywhere near clean. In fact, it offers virtually nothing in the way of reassurance that the National Priority Crimes squad is doing its job, much less that the sewage workers are progressing with the cesspit that is our police force. The inquiry’s conclusions on the cases of apparent foot-dragging by the elite unit amount to little more than the useful Scottish finding of `not proven guilty’ — a judgment which falls far short of `not guilty’. It is enough to send a chill down the spine of any law-abiding citizen to read Advocate Neville Melville’s complaint that he was unable to make use of more than one police investigator as it `would have entailed too high a security risk’. Is there only one officer left in our police force who can be trusted? There are other grounds for concern in the report. By his account, Melville was obstructed by law officers who refused him access to documents on grounds that they were `sub judice’,or `too sensitive’. Again, while appreciating the climate of suspicion which hangs over our law enforcement agencies, trust has to begin somewhere and we would suggest Melville was as good a starting point as any. The successful prosecution of criminals is critical to the good order of society. But that endeavour is pointless if the investigative and prosecuting services themselves are corrupt. Where Britz himself is concerned, it is our hope that he has been wrongly criticised. South Africa can ill-afford to do without an officer of his huge experience. There is a danger, where veteran police officers are concerned, that they may be pilloried on the planks of prejudice by sole virtue of their association with the old regime. But it should be pointed out to them that their most effective weapon against such prejudice is transparency. Mufamadi has shown the way.