The acting police minister, a former law professor and erstwhile chair of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council (Nacac), is at loggerheads with the chief of police over the fate of 121 live dockets concerning the corruption behind the political killings in KwaZulu-Natal, which were removed from investigating officers there.

The acting minister wants, pending the outcome of the Madlanga Commission, the dockets to languish in limbo in Pretoria, while national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola wants them returned to KwaZulu-Natal for further investigation and finalisation. The suspended police minister instructed that they be removed to Pretoria in December last year; it is alleged this was done to protect the corrupt involved in political assassinations from exposure in court.

Technically, the minister did have the power to so intervene on the law as it stands. However, as the acting minister well knows, the Constitutional Court has ordered that “a body outside the control of the executive” should deal with serious corruption in SA. No such body exists, mainly because the political will to properly implement the court’s ruling has yet to be mustered. Nacac, which has now reached its sell-by date, has expended much effort trying to find ways around the ruling of the court since its formation in August 2022.

Masemola will win the current spat unless there is some obscure, not yet apparent, legitimate purpose of the government involved, one that would render the December 2024 instruction a proper exercise of power and not an attempt to shield the corrupt — which is, at least in part, why the minister is on gardening leave. Shielding the corrupt is not a legitimate purpose of the government.

Given the intended lifespan of the commission, it is simply not realistic to expect it to delve into every one of the 121 dockets, yet this is apparently what the acting minister expects.

Paul Hoffman
Director, Accountability Now