President Cyril Ramaphosa is clearly in a tight spot when it comes to dealing with the now-on-gardening-leave police minister, Senzo Mchunu. However the president should guard against creating an impression that Mchunu, a minister accused — at the very least — of indirectly sharing state information and documents with shady characters believed to have links to a criminal syndicate and — at most — disbanding a hard-working task team at the behest of a troubled but wealthy criminal suspect, is a wheel Ramaphosa is prepared to die on. Granted, Mchunu was among the key figures in helping Ramaphosa become ANC president — and ultimately the country’s president — at a time when the odds were stacked against him in the then Jacob Zuma-controlled ANC.
The president’s historical loyalty to Mchunu is therefore understandable. But his loyalty towards his old comrade should not undermine the president’s stated objective of rooting out crime and corruption in public institutions and the country as whole. Ramaphosa was widely hailed for acting swiftly on the Madlanga commission’s interim report into allegations of corruption and control by criminal gangs in the police service.
The commission, which the president appointed after the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner made damning allegations against his colleagues in the police, Mchunu, and various other criminal justice enforcement agencies, made interim findings and recommendations against several individuals in December. The president reacted by ordering the formation of a task team to criminally investigate and prosecute those fingered. All of them are either policemen or officials in the Ekurhuleni Metro Police department and council.
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Conspicuously missing from the list was Mchunu, whose name featured prominently ahead of the commission’s interim report. However, Ramaphosa has taken no action against Mchunu, with his office saying the interim report — which has not been made public — makes a finding against Mchunu but makes no recommendation against him. This may very well be true and the president may be within his right to say he will wait until the whole process is completed before acting on the minister.
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