Give brave general a break

Lt-Gen Mkhwanazi never asked to be canonised, he just found a country yearning for normalcy and justice... and citizens embraced his bravery.

- Sydney Majoko

South Africa has never been the same since that Sunday on 6 July when KwaZulu-Natal police provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi stood before the nation and declared that there is rot in the police and judiciary that makes it impossible for ordinary police officers to do their job.

This rot, in the form of corruption, political influence in the police and criminals buying political and police protection to evade justice is what the Madlanga commission and parliamentary ad hoc committee on the police are investigating.

Last week, during the sitting of the ad hoc committee, Mkhwanazi withdrew one of the many allegations he had made. He admitted he was mistaken on the allegation that former national police commissioner and former minister of police Bheki Cele had sent banking details to alleged criminal syndicate mastermind Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala.

All of Mkhwanazi's detractors came raining down hard on him: if he was wrong about Cele, what else is he wrong about?