It seems we are back to the era of Jackie Selebi, the disgraced former police commissioner with a penchant for designer clothes, who sold police intelligence information to drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti in exchange for cash and expensive gifts.
South Africa’s beleaguered justice system, beset by political interference and perennial corruption in the top echelons of the police service, is yet again in the dock.
It seems we are back to the era of Jackie Selebi, the disgraced former police commissioner with a penchant for designer clothes, who sold police intelligence information to drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti in exchange for cash and expensive gifts.
While it may be too early to say, the testimonies of KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and national police boss Fannie Masemola at the Madlanga Commission suggest that the rot is deep.
The two have lifted the lid on a justice system captured by criminal cartels, with top politicians including Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and the deputy commissioner for crime detection, Shadrack Sibiya, allegedly at the centre of the rot.
Sibiya is on special leave pending an investigation into his alleged role in the disbandment of the political killings task team.
Both Mkhwanazi and Masemola have revealed Mchunu’s real motive to disband the hugely-important task team: he was allegedly desperate to protect criminal cartels.
Masemola further testified that Mchunu’s decision was “irrational” and that the minister “over-reached” when he disbanded the task team in December 2024 as it closed in on Vusumuzi “Cat” Matlala and other alleged criminals in Gauteng such as Katiso “KT” Molefe.
Even more shocking, Mchunu is believed to have told the police top brass that there had been no political killings after 1994, despite the many cases including the 2017 murder of Sindiso Magaqa, a councillor in the uMzimkhulu local municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.
The hitman, Sibusiso Ncengwa, was in July sentenced to 25 years in prison for the assassination. The vehicle and firearm used in the hit allegedly belong to Crime Intelligence.
Further, the alleged mastermind behind Magaqa’s murder, former municipal manager Zweliphansi Skhosana, faces a litany of charges including murder.
It is clear that the work of the task team was bearing fruit, making Mchunu’s decision not only irrational, but bizarre.
From the testimony so far, it appears that nothing has changed in the police service since the era of Selebi, who served from 2000 to 2008. Selebi was charged with corruption and in 2010 convicted for taking bribes from Agliotti, whom he said was his friend, “finish and klaar”.
Five years ago, acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane was fired for alleged involvement in a 2014 contract for the purchase of panoramic cameras when he was head of forensic services.
Now the nation waits for Mchunu and Sibiya’s time to take the stand and tell us their side of the story, hoping their testimony will allay our fears of another Selebi. And we hope whatever comes out of the Madlanga commission, President Cyril Ramaphosa will take decisive action.
Finish and klaar.