Sydney Mufamadi is expected to run the crucial police ministry without staff or a budget, reports Paul Stober
SAFETY and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi, faced with the difficult and urgent task of reforming the police, has a simple problem: he has not been given the personnel or resources to do the job.
With policing services in the former homelands falling apart and open rebellion among Natal and Transkei policemen, Mufamadi finds himself powerless to intervene in the deteriorating security situation.
Sources close to the ministry and in the South African Police Services (SAPS) this week described how Mufamadi was expected to transform one of the most powerful and conservative arms of government without sufficient men or material.
Like most ANC ministers, Mufamadi has been left to sort out his ministry as best he can. Unlike most, he has no budget for his ministry under his direct control or suitably trained ANC members he can pump into its ranks to help him clean up.
The interim constitution and the draft of the new Police Act provide for a civilian ministry to take control of the police to make them more accountable to the public.
But, the present budget does not provide for civilian personnel to staff the ministry.
Formerly, the ministry was mainly staffed by seconded policemen and received a small allocation from the SAP budget. “The ministry was effectively paid and run by the commissioner,” commented a police source.
As a result, the police did their own evaluation of their services and researched and developed their own policing doctrines and priorities.
Mufamadi has to take these responsibilities away from the SAPS and entrust them to civilian officials, who will also liaise with the new provincial forces and international agencies.
But two months after the election, Mufamadi has still not been able to employ his own advisers or bring in people to set up the ministry who he can trust to help him deal with the crisis in some of the regions. With the various police budgets for next year already approved, Mufamadi’s ministry will remain without a budget for the next 12 months.
Any appointment Mufamadi wants, has to first be approved by the minister of public services and administration, Zola Skweyiya, and this has caused a bureaucratic bottleneck.
There has also been a lack of planning from the side of the ANC about how to take over the police services.
While ANC security officials are pushing for Mufamadi to clean up the force, the organisation did not secure agreements on the appointment of ANC members at all levels of the SAPS to help implement and monitor change.
And even if such agreements had been clinched, the ANC does not have enough suitable trained people to deploy in these posts.
Sources in the police indicate the generals remain cockily sure of their positions. In terms of the interim constitution, their jobs are guaranteed and they have been on their best behaviour and not done anything to put their jobs on the line.
The lack of a proper ministry and a new Police Act is creating problems of command and control in South Africa’s 12 police agencies. In terms of the interim constitution, Mufamadi is the minister responsible for all 12 until the new Act is passed and a single service is formed.
In instances where policemen have openly rebelled against their officers _ like in the eastern Cape _ command falls on Mufamadi who has to dampen the fires.
This overcentralisation of command _ until the new Police Act is passed, the regional safety and security ministers have no real powers _ creates serious logjams in the forces and urgent problems on the ministry’s agenda are often just not dealt with.
Mufamadi has not been able to use his ministerial powers to stamp his authority on the general staff. Indeed, he has not yet clashed with the generals because he has not tried to push any major change past them.
Neither has he got around to winning the support of ordinary policemen by going round and selling them the government’s vision of a new way of policing.