EMPD saga resembles the collapse of public policing

This wasn't a partnership. It was the privatisation of power

- NYANISO QWESHA

SOUTH Africa's policing crisis is no longer just about crime. It's about the quiet, dangerous shift of state authority into private hands. Across the country, municipal police departments and private security companies now operate in overlapping, often competing spaces.

When that relationship isn't tightly policed, it corrupts the very foundation of public safety. It blurs the line between official authority and private interest. And it opens the door to the kind of abuse that the Constitution simply cannot withstand.

The scandal in Ekurhuleni is not an isolated embarrassment; it is the clearest warning sign yet.

On November 11, Deputy Chief of Police Julius Mkhwanazi was suspended following jaw-dropping testimony before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into corruption in the criminal justice system. What emerged was a case study in how power can quietly migrate from the state to private actors and how easily that migration can be abused.

The central allegation is extraordinary: Mkhwanazi signed what he now admits was an unlawful Memorandum of Understanding with CAT VIP Protection Services, owned by Vusimuzi Matlala. Signed solely by Mkhwanazi, the agreement effectively delegated core policing functions to a private company. Not in theory, in practice.

The commission heard that:

CAT VIP Protection was given quasi-police powers. The company's high-end vehicles, BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes, were authorised to attend crime scenes and use blue lights normally reserved for official police. That alone crosses every legal and ethical boundary in public policing.

Public authority was quietly eroded. Testimony suggested the company was even gearing up to provide protection for the mayor, blurring the line between municipal government and private force.