A winter of reckoning: Policing, syndicates, the erosion of command

SOUTH Africa’s winter has long echoed historic burdens, most notably the 1976 student uprising and the July 2021 unrest.

- CLYDE RAMALAINE

The latter, labelled an insurrection by the Ramaphosa-led state, served as a politically expedient move, deflecting accountability while exposing racist violence in Phoenix, state brutality and broken democratic promises.

But July 2025 signals a new chapter, marked by exposures, high-level suspensions and institutional decay, especially within the SAPS.

This “winter of discontent” reveals not just negligence but a disturbing nexus of criminal syndicates, compromised police structures and political interference. This is about more than corruption — it is about the erosion of command and a nation caught between exposure and accountability.

At the centre of this storm is KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. His explosive July 6 statement shifted public discourse, revealing forensic links between weapons used in several high-profile assassinations, pointing to a coordinated network within the state’s security structures.

Mkhwanazi’s disclosures are grounded in evidence: ballistic matches, arrests and corroborated results. Weapons recovered in the murder of engineer Armand Swart matched those used in the 2022 assassination of DJ Sumbody and the attempted murder of Tebogo Thobejane.

SAPS spokesperson Athlenda Mathe confirmed: “All these three cases are linked somehow.” Four weapons, including the AK-47 used to kill DJ Sumbody, are now tied to at least 10 high-profile cases.

By July 21, four suspects were arrested, including alleged kingpin Katiso “KT” Molefe and three suspected hitmen: Michael Pule Tau, Tiego Floyd Mabusela and Musa Kekana. SAPS confirmed the ballistics-linked weapons to at least ten cases, giving credibility to Mkhwanazi’s claims and undermining counter-narratives, particularly Minister Senzo Mchunu’s initial denials, later followed by admissions.