Allegations against Mchunu echo Selebi scandal

Towards the end of former president Thabo Mbeki’s rule, explosive allegations were made against then national police commissioner Jackie Selebi.

Selebi was not only a top ruling party member, but the former United Nations ambassador was also at the time president of Interpol, the international crime fighting organisation.

When the head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Vusi Pikoli, attempted to effect arrest and search warrants against Selebi, it resulted in his own suspension and later firing.

On Sunday, KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi made similarly explosive allegations of possible criminal conduct by sitting Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu and head of this country’s detectives, Shadrack Sibiya.

Mkhwanazi made the public allegations that much like Selebi back in the day, the top politician and cop have direct relationships with bosses of crime syndicates who have been linked to drug cartels and assassinations.

Selebi was temporarily shielded from arrest by the immediate suspension of Pikoli by Mbeki, whom, it was alleged, was a close friend and confidant of the police commissioner.

It is widely accepted that President Cyril Ramaphosa owes his first term as president to, among others, Mchunu and former deputy president David Mabuza who died last week.

And the question uppermost in everyone’s mind is: will Ramaphosa follow in Mbeki’s footsteps to first shield his political ally Mchunu and, second and most importantly, put in motion steps that might result in the end of the career of Mkhwanazi?

It is not every day that a provincial police commissioner alleges that his political principal has been caught out in a lie to parliament about being an associate of an alleged crime syndicate boss.

The easiest way to make all these unsavoury allegations go away is to get rid of the one making the allegations, by either removing them from their position or, as is common in mafia movies, make him an offer he cannot refuse – resign or be killed.

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The third option, a favoured method in this country’s law enforcement, is to suspend and charge him with trumped-up violations of the police’s code of conduct.

The president’s way of shielding those close to him politically is to “apply his mind” to matters.

It will not shock anyone if he institutes a commission of inquiry into Mkhwanazi’s allegations, while Mchunu and Sibiya continue in their jobs and Mkhwanazi is sidelined. Mkhwanazi’s allegations, if not proven untrue in an official manner, will confirm that the descent of this country into a mafia state is in full swing.

It is known that kidnappings have now become an accepted daily occurrence.

The recent assassination of financial forensic investigator in the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality showed that the murder of Babita Deokaran under similar circumstances was not the first, nor the last.

These crimes will continue because those in charge protect the criminals. There are calls for Mkhwanazi to follow “the proper” police channels and not act “rogue”.

Those people must ask Pikoli what following the proper channels did for him and his career.

Mchunu and Sibiya can easily refute the allegations made by Mkhwanazi under oath.

And if they prove him to be a loose cannon who is out to destroy their careers, he will pay the price.

But people deserve to know that this country is not being run by criminals with a badge.

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