Dear Editor,

The Madlanga Commission was appointed in July last year and has received a great deal of pertinent evidence since last September. On 3rd September 2026 , an expert’s report was debated before the commission between its author, Dr Mark Shaw, a world expert in the organised crime and corruption fields, and chief evidence leader, Adv Matthew Chaskalson SC. The good doctor’s diagnosis for SA on these fronts is dire. SA is the most corrupt country in Southern Africa and ranks in the top ten worldwide on the organised crime front. The medicine he prescribes is extreme, but game changing for constitutionalism in SA.

A careful conspectus of Dr Shaw’s testimony reveals that while there are still trained experts in anti-corruption work in SA, they are hobbled by bad elements within the existing criminal justice administration who sabotage all efforts to hold organised criminals and the corrupt to account for the crimes they commit.

The cure to this malady lies in the hands of our politicians. Long ago, back in 2014, the Constitutional Court gave its prescribed medicine in a few brutal opening lines of the majority judgment in the third (and final) Glenister appeal it heard:

“Corruption is rife in this country, and stringent measures are required to contain this malady before it graduates into something terminal. We are in one accord that South Africa needs an agency dedicated to the containment and eventual eradication of the scourge of corruption. We also agree that the entity must enjoy adequate structural and operational independence to deliver effectively and efficiently on its core mandate.”

No such entity exists. The anti-organised crime and corruption work of the state must expeditiously be removed from the existing failing institutions (SAPS, NPA, SSA) and handed over to the single body the court prescribes in its judgment. The best practice method for effecting this would be to create a new Chapter Nine body (by definition “outside executive control”) to deal effectively and efficiently with organised crime and corruption. Many of the better staff of the SIU could be recruited into the new body preparatory to disbanding the SIU and passing its unfinished criminal work over to the Chapter Nine body or the OPP where no crime in involved. The SIU is not part of the criminal justice administration.

Careful vetting and stringent appointment procedures that utilise lifestyle audits and scientific integrity testing can be deployed to ensure that the best of the anti-corruption staff of the state reach the new body, which can also be required to take over IPID’s workload involving corrupt cops.

Trained specialists who enjoy independence in their institutional structure and operations, secure tenure of office, and guaranteed resourcing can cure the “malady before it graduates into something terminal.” The political will to reform the system is all that is lacking.

Yours in accountability,
Paul Hoffman SC
Director
Institute for Accountability in South Africa
Campaigning as Accountability Now