Inquiries into police have brought SA to the precipice

It is a turning point for the country, and who will pay - either the ANC or citizens - is to be decided

- Marianne Thamm

Many South Africans are understandably anxious at what has been exposed about police criminality in two top-level probes, one parliamentary and the other a judicial inquiry.

Patience and endurance will be required during this white-knuckle ride where the guardrails protecting the country's constitutional democracy are once again going to be tested.

In 2017, the Guptaleaks served to expose the collective R57-billion siphoned from the country by the Jacob Zuma-Gupta nexus between 2009 and 2018 – peak State Capture time. The guardrails held despite a prolonged and relentless attack.

Parliament's ad hoc committee probing police graft and the portentously titled Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System (the Madlanga Commission) are our new Guptaleaks moment.

Whereas the Zondo and other commissions, inquiries and court cases exposed dirty palace politics, we are now heading for the ugly nitty-gritty down below.

And since the icing of Inspector-General of Intelligence Imtiaz Fazel, the office has gone dark. All investigations iced. The lights are off as they were during Zuma's disastrous tenure.

With the top brass of the South African Police Service (SAPS) at each other's throats, Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu placed on special leave and Fazel suspended, only the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac), led by advocate Andrea Johnson, stands between the criminals and those seeking to expose them.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU), in the meantime, has been working overtime netting several high-profile suspected crime syndicate kingpins, including Hangwani Maumela, accused in the Tembisa Hospital corruption scandal.