The “explosive allegations” a week ago by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi “provided the President with an opportunity to show bold and firm leadership … (but) he has once again outsourced executive responsibility to a commission”.
So says DA leader John Steenhuisen.
“The President has taken a step, but not the leap that this moment demands. If he truly wants to root out criminal syndicates from the state, he must start with his own Cabinet. South Africans deserve action, not more commissions.”
He was referring to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announced last night that he was appointing a Judicial Commission of Inquiry under Acting Deputy Chief Justice, Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, to investigate Mkhwanazi’s allegations, putting police minister Senzo Mchunu on special leave and appointing Firoz Cachalia as an acting minister in his place.
In a statement titled “New Judicial Commission Must Not Become Another Zondo-Style Dead End”, Steenhuisen said soon after Ramaphosa’s televised address last night that “South Africans have grown cynical of talk shops, task teams and commissions which they see as buying time and avoiding accountability”.
Mkhwanazi’s allegations, he said, “strike at the heart of South Africa’s criminal justice system, implicating senior law enforcement, prosecutorial, intelligence, and even executive officials in organised crime and systemic corruption”.
For this reason, the DA “will not accept a years-long process that gathered damning evidence only to deliver zero accountability”.
“The country cannot afford another elaborate filing cabinet of findings that gather dust while the politically connected escape justice. The DA will hold the president to account on every finding and recommendation made by this committee, and we will fight in cabinet and parliament for swift and visible action. Parliament must not be sidelined and the work of parliament to hold the executive to account must continue unabated and undeterred.
“While we welcome the replacement of Minister Mchunu, we also reject the attempt to create the illusion of reform while ANC ministers accused of corruption remain firmly in cabinet at the behest of presidential prerogative. The presence of Ministers Nkabane and Simelane, exposes the ongoing selective and performative accountability that South Africans grow tired of.”
In other reaction reported by the Daily Maverick, ActionSA described Mchunu’s leave of absence “effectively, a paid holiday”, warning that Ramaphosa’s response “raises serious concerns about the lack of urgency” in confronting allegations of criminal infiltration and corruption in the police service.
Brett Herron, secretary-general of the GOOD party, said Mkhwanazi’s allegations “demand an immediate and independent criminal investigation”.
FF Plus leader Corné Mulder welcomed Ramaphosa’s announcement, saying it was “the right thing to do and the Commission should be allowed to do its work”.
[Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/governmentza/51873890206]