Public servants cannot be both heroes and villains

Former Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) head Andrea Johnson testifies at the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee inquiry into alleged corruption and political interference in the criminal justice system at Good Hope Chambers on 6 November 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa. Picture: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach. In the 1987 movie, RoboCop, a middle-ranking junior executive of Omni Consumer Products, Bob Morton, gets given a chance to produce his robot prototype by the company CEO.

The aim was to create a robot whose intentions are good: to protect the innocent, serve the public and uphold the law. But as is always the case with mega corporations, their interests are not always just for good, but profit. In RoboCop they created good out of evil intentions.

The recent recurring public theme following several Madlanga Commission of Inquiry witnesses is “people must remember that people cannot always be heroes or villains, sometimes they can be both”. This follows the likes ofAndrea Johnsongiving evidence and their characters proving to be questionable because they have been shown to be giving inconsistent evidence and even accused of making false assertions under oath. This attempt to characterise people like Johnson as neither heroes, nor villains, is borne out of the public’s need to have RoboCops running public institutions, people who will stay true to serving the public interest, even though they themselves might have been placed in their positions by people with evil intentions.

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But public service requires heroes, always, and that is what people forget. What has happened at theIndependent Directorate Against Corruption(Idac) under the leadership of Johnson cannot in any way be excused as simply a hero who had an evil side, because human beings can be both heroes and villains at the same time. Advocates are not allowed to be villains… it goes against their oath of office: “…truly and honestly…with integrity”.

That’s in addition to swearing loyalty to the South Africa. There is no room for an advocate to be “human”, to allow their not-so-honest side to come to the fore while discharging their duties. It is exactly for the same reason that doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, they are not allowed to be anything else while in practice.

There are no half-measures for them. Idac was established as somewhat of a successor to the Scorpions, which had scored some serious successes in the battle against corruption in the early days of South Africa’s democracy.

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