MANDY WIENER: How to push Ctrl-Alt-Del on the police service

We have been here before.

The nexus between law enforcement, politicians, wealthy businessmen and criminal syndicates has been well-documented by me and other excellent journalists.

I have long argued that the South African Police Service requires a hard reset. The problems are so entrenched, so deep, that the rot is almost impossible to eradicate. Almost impossible, but not entirely impossible.

In theory, it’s a good idea to completely overhaul the SAPS, make everyone reapply for their jobs, lay down the law and retrain and upskill cops. But in practice, it’s not that easy.

Crime analyst Dr Chris de Kock explained to me on The Midday Report this week that while we need to ‘clean up the whole thing’, we can’t just switch it off.

"That will be very difficult because you see it’s not something that you can switch off and say I’m now going to clean the whole organisation. We need a police service, an active police service, and a very efficient police service, given our levels of crime. But I think this commission is a good beginning. The revelations of General Mkhwanazi were a good thing, and at least it’s now in the ope,n and I think if this commission does their work properly, they will then identify most of the rotten apples at the higher level, and there should be action."

Expectations of the commission appointed to investigate General Mkhwanazi’s claims, headed by Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, have been mixed. While many despair at yet another commission or inquiry or panel or task team, there is the hope that this will finally be the mechanism that will clean up the cops.

This week, the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council (NACAC), headed by acting police minister Firoz Cachalia, raised serious concerns around the capabilities of the Crime Intelligence division of the SAPS. It described CI as dysfunctional, pointing out that compromised personnel were in place and that it was plagued by endemic levels of corruption.

Crime Intelligence has long been a site of capture, division and political abuse.

“NACAC was advised by people with deep knowledge and familiarity with fighting corruption and organised crime that the crime intelligence division should be disbanded and reconstructed afresh. While NACAC has not gone this far, it recommends that the Madlanga commission accord priority attention to investigating crime intelligence.”

One of the crucial elements of cleaning up the SAPS is to deepen and restore public trust and faith in the service. This has been eroded over the years, and while there are absolutely pockets of excellence and hard-working, capable officers, this is not necessarily the prevailing view of the public.

It does not help the cause of the cops when a naked man manages to easily disarm a police officer and fire off several shots from the service weapon in broad daylight in the busy Cape Town CBD. One wonders what level of training these patrol officers are receiving.

At a higher level, there is also disarray with commissioners and generals battling one another in the courts of law and the courts of public opinion.

This week, Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya went to court to challenge his suspension by the National Commissioner Fanie Masemola. General Mkhwanazi has also pointed his finger at Sibiya, claiming he was central to the political syndicates he exposed.

The Police Minister, Senzo Mnchunu, has been placed on extended leave, and the Acting Minister Professor Firoz Cachalia, has already found himself in the midst of a power struggle with the Commissioner.

It was also resolved this week that the dockets that were removed from the now dissolved KZN political killings task team would be submitted to the Mandlanga Commission. General Masemola had decided to return the dockets to KZN, and the Minister was not happy about this. Reports also suggest that the President was furious at the move as it undermined the Commission.

Within one month, the relationship between the National Commissioner and the Minister was already strained, and that does not bode well for future collaboration. However, in a joint statement on Tuesday, the Minister and the Commissioner agreed to be friends and work together.

Cachalia and Masemola agreed to make sure that all members of the SAPS support the Madlanga Commission and uphold its integrity.

They also undertook to maintain a “professional, collegial and respectful relationship with consultations and regular reporting on important matters in the public and policy domains”

The reason for the meeting was “to clarify and affirm their respective roles, with the minister having executive authority and the national commissioner having operational authority given their shared objectives of building public trust in the SAPS and improving morale among its members”.

The leadership of the police, the Minister and the President will be looking to Justice Madlanga for answers and will hope that the Commission will throw enough sunlight to disinfect the rot. But other options of how to reset the SAPS also need to be considered.

Is it time to privatise law enforcement ward by ward or metro by metro and get the private sector involved? We already have a private security service more effective and larger than the official police service.

In the Western Cape, the DA is pushing hard for devolution of policing, giving the province and the metros responsibility for thebudgets and running of the capacity.

At what point is the rot so deep that we have to push Ctrl-Alt-Del and start again?