It's the ANC itself that's on trial at the Madlanga Commission

The stories coming to light point straight at the party's regrettable habit of always looking the other way

- Bhekisisa Mncube

My leader, the Madlanga Commission and the Ad Hoc Committee on Judicial Capture and Political Interference in the South African Police Service have become a public trial of the ANC itself. What began as an inquiry into law enforcement rot now reads like an ANC postmortem. At every turn of decay, the fingerprints of party loyalists are found on the steering wheel.

Who among us still remembers the era of Mzwandile Masina in Ekurhuleni? The grand speeches, the empty promises and the silence that followed the sirens. Let us speak, then, about the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD), the other Mkhwanazi and the allegations that a criminal enterprise thrived under the noses of ANC mayors and councillors who saw nothing and perhaps profited from silence.

This is not just a matter of a few bad apples, but a systemic failure that has far-reaching implications for our society.

The EMPD deputy chief, Julius Mkhwanazi, was suspended last week amid explosive allegations that rattled the city and further tarnished its already fading reputation. Mkhwanazi, a man of curious ambition, once promoted himself to police chief — no interviews, no oversight, just self-anointment in blue. A bureaucrat by day, an alleged criminal by lunchtime, he turned public service into a private empire.

Cemetery of paperwork