Mkhwanazi plays by his own rules

The brains trust at Luthuli House must be wondering how on earth Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi managed to get through the ANC’s rigorous tests for both party loyalty and questionable ethics… both of those being pre-requisites for going far as a deployed cadre.

They must look at the KZN police commissioner and see the rank badges on his uniform and then shake their heads in bafflement because he appears to be doing exactly the job he was appointed to do, rather than the real one of protecting the comrades.

After all, for decades, the ANC has packed the ranks of the law enforcement sector – from cops on the ground to judicial officers in courtrooms – with those whose main objective is to pervert the course of justice.

Some do it deliberately and some through gross incompetence, but the end result is the same: no-one from the upper ranks of the ANC has been put behind bars for corruption and theft.

As someone who spent part of my life running around the bush with a machinegun, let me declare my bias: I am always more likely to trust a soldier than I am a politician.

And, let’s not forget that Mkhwanazi is, at heart, a soldier. He trained as an operator in the SA Police’s elite Task Force, having first passed its tough selection process (second only to that of the army Recces, so it is said) and also qualified as a paratrooper.

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It was no mistake that when he held his head-turning press conference last weekend, Mkhwanazi chose to wear his Taakie camouflage uniform and to surround himself with armed colleagues.

It was theatrical, for sure, but the message was clear: you mess with me at your peril.

There were some who saw worrying undertones of coup plotting and, it must be said that, on camera, he appeared little different from the African military strongmen who have overthrown governments on a regular basis since the wind of decolonisation started blowing across the continent in the ‘60s.

However, there can be no denying that this country has been invaded by criminals and it is going to take a ruthless fightback to reclaim it. Mkhwanazi seems to be trying to do just that… the body count of his units in KZN shows that he believes fire has to be fought with fire and that the end justifies the means.

Is he running a system of “death squads” carrying out extra-judicial executions, or is he telling his cops to defend themselves? Most South Africans, if you ask them that question right now, would believe the latter explanation.

As a soldier, he is calling the situation as he sees it – that politicians at the very highest level are involved in a massive criminal syndicate which, effectively, runs our country.

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His outspoken attitude, interestingly, mirrors that of another ex-soldier, Major-General Bantu Holomisa, who is currently the deputy minister of defence. Holomisa was expelled from the ANC after raising uncomfortable questions decades ago about corruption.

He went on to set up his own party, the United Democratic Front, and is still a sworn enemy of graft.

Mkhwanazi, as a military man, would know the importance of the propaganda component of any war… and he has got in the first shots.

He would also know the importance of timing – and his enemy, the ANC hierarchy, is probably at its most vulnerable now.

We wait with interest to see whether our former ruling party’s bosses will embark on a counterattack.