Inside South Africa’s gangster police culture

On 6 July last year, when KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi decided to break ranks with his colleagues and held a press conference that has now spawned the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into police and judiciary corruption and political interference, General Shadrack Sibiya, the deputy national police commissioner’s main response was: “Mkhwanazi must behave like a policeman… he must stop behaving like a criminal and start behaving like a disciplined member of the police force.”

At the time, not much significance could be attached to Sibiya’s call to Mkhwanazi to “behave like a policeman”.

Last week, the Presidency released the names of top police leadership who are implicated by the evidence given at the commission thus far.

For one unfortunate and bumbling head of the Hawks in KZN, General Lesetja Senona, his name made the list as he was still busy trying to convince the commission how he selectively heard the news of assassinated whistle-blower Babita Deokaran, but missed the portion that her death was possibly linked to her investigation of, among others, his “chosen” younger brother Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.

Senona is joined on that list by Major-General Richard Shibiri, Brigadier Mbanga Nkhwashu and Brigadier Rachel Matjeng, among other police officers and government or municipal officials.

It now becomes clearer what Sibiya meant when he said Mkhwanazi must behave like a real policeman.

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The amount of ducking and diving that Senona was doing on the stand to his own detriment and embarrassment clearly showed he was never going to admit any wrongdoing and would deny everything.

This is the same ducking and diving Sibiya himself had done when on the stand.

Even though these cops had fallen short of taking the mafioso family code of silence, the omerta, they cannot keep quiet but must lie through their teeth to protect each other.

Senona “lost” a shipment of drugs that had been put away in storage in Port Shepstone under his watch.

By his own admission, the safe was of such quality that the walls could not simply be cut through.

The drug shipment itself weighed 541kg, more than half a ton, meaning it would need substantial manpower and quite a large truck to move it from a soundly built police safe surrounded by cameras.

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Yet the shipment disappeared and Senona was quick to point out that he had never shared any information with his friend Matlala.

Only a very slow mind would not make the connection that police information was leaked to criminals.

That is what “real police” in South Africa do.

Sibiya’s call to Mkhwanazi was for him to behave like all rogue police do: have their friends’ back no matter how much wrongdoing they were implicated in.

This is the culture in the current South African Police Service. A gang mentality. Always protect each other. But at whose cost?

Clearly, at the cost of the South African taxpayer and citizen. What Mkhwanazi did on 6 July was break away from that gang mentality.

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When the Madlanga commission is done and all those implicated are facing the music, a parallel process needs to be taking place that will result in a complete overhaul of the police service.

The “real police” gang mentality is very deeply entrenched in the current set, such that whenever good police men and women happen to join the force, their voices and good intentions are drowned out by this general call to do as “real police” do.

The overhaul of the service must flush out that culture and turn the police service into a structure that fills citizens with confidence.