President Cyril Ramaphosa has failed to live up to expectations, again

President Cyril Ramaphosa had the opportunity to grab the bull by the horns on Sunday night, but yet again, rather than being bold and decisive, he chose to appease factions in the ANC.

In the lead up to the much anticipated ‘Family Meeting’ on Sunday night, the nation was gripped and expectant, after KwaZulu-Natal top cop Lt Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi unleashed a bazooka on the nation - stripping his political boss Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, naked.

Mkhwanazi’s allegations of political interference and worse more, that Mchunu was a conduit for a sophisticated criminal network involving individuals from the deep and dark under-belly of South Africa’s crime and drug networks - were pregnant with detail. 

He cited bank transactions, WhatsApp conversations extracted from the cellphone of an implicated party - Vusumuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala and even linked the minister’s movements with another murky character apparently swirling around and near the minister - one Brown Mogotsi.

The police minister has of course denied the allegations, twice, but he has yet to publicly allow any interrogation by any journalist in this country on the allegations. So until then, best believe most will take Mkhwanazi’s bazooka as the gospel truth, no matter what his media officers and murky online characters promoting his image, do or say. 

In the lead up to the Sunday address, a persistent question on IOL and other news platforms was the question of whether Ramaphosa would protect or fire Mchunu. 

He has opted for the middle ground, stripping him of his responsibility with the announcement of the so-called special leave, but retaining his title as minister, salary and ministerial perks, for at least the next year or more.

And therein lies the failure, and the disappointment for most South Africans. Ramaphosa had the opportunity to fire Mchunu and send him to the backbenches of Parliament for the duration of the inquiry which could take months, many many months. 

The DA’s former deputy minister Andrew Whitfield was fired without a commission of inquiry for travelling to the US without the head of state’s express permission. Although with Whitfield too, it curiously took the president three months to act.

Firing Mchunu would have no doubt been damaging within ANC corridors, but it would have sent the right message to the public-at-large - the time for the politics of patronage is over. 

Thuma Mina 

During Ramaphosa's first State of the Nation Address in February 2018, he sent the nation into a poetic orgasm with his Mbeki-esque Thuma Mina speech, but he has been an elusive and difficult president to send to do anything of substance, ever since. 

Within the ANC and Luthuli House politics, he has been a behemoth creature, toppling the RET faction and the likes of former president Jacob Zuma, Ace Magashule and many others. But in Pretoria, it feels like the centre does not hold.

Since 2018, the country has sent Ramaphosa clear directives, objectives and goals, but the country and its people has been consistently falling short. 

Zuma did a lot of harm to Project South Africa - there is no denying that - but how better has Ramaphosa fared?

Police reform has been on the agenda for a number of years - chiefly through the two Ramaphosa Administrations - but how much progress has the country made.  

Ramaphosa has tried to establish new law enforcement agencies alongside the SAPS, like the NPA-led prosecutor driven Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC - which was previously known as the Investigating Directorate), but it is a new and tiny crime fighting institution, which still needs more money, more manpower to become the force that is required.

IDAC

IDAC has been established to “investigate and prosecute high level and complex corruption, including common law and statutory offences” - the agency states. 

These commercial crimes include fraud, forgery, uttering, theft and corruption related offences, as prescribed under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities.

They also extend to violations in relation to terror-related crimes, contraventions of the the Public Finance Management Act, the Municipal Finance Management Act and Financial Intelligence Centre Act related crimes.Importantly, amid wide criticism from the public in terms of Ramaphosa instituting another Commission of Inquiry to be led by soon to be retired Acting Deputy Chief Justice Madlanga, the IDAC is also setup to deal with specific referrals arising from “public commissions of enquiries in criminal activities that involve prominent figures in government departments, State Owned Entities (SOEs), and the private sector”. 

The IDAC only become a permanent office in August last year. They have a lot of work to do, with backlogs ranging from the Marikana Commission, Mpati Commission, Zondo Commission and many others.

Commission Criticism

And this is the concern for many South Africans arising out of the answer to the Mkhwanazi bazooka being another inquiry. 

I am aware many people do not want to hear this, but in instituting a Commission of Inquiry, Ramaphosa - to my reading - had very little other choice. 

The allegations - or bazooka bomb dropped by Mkhwanazi was serious and demanded a response. The criticism is that the commission is a delay tactic for continued ANC expediency, and that is warranted, but the commission also presents the public an opportunity to hear first hand how rotten the State of Pretoria is. 

We do deserve to know, and we should call for a transparent process which will uncover and detail the rot, layer by layer, before our eyes. 

Once that has been ascertained, the IDAC must stand ready to act against those implicated, immediately and in a pointed fashion. The times of political ducking must come to an end.

Mkhwanazi’s allegations - I know most people fully believe them - must be tested and action must follow. 

By the way, remember that National Development Plan... How are we doing with the professionalization of the SA Police Service? Story for another day. 

** Sihle Mlambo is a content manager at IOL.

** The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of IOL or Independent Media.