The arrest of two Limpopo police officers for robbing Ethiopian traders of nearly R2m in cash and illicit cigarettes is another damning indictment of SA’s policing crisis.
It is deeply troubling that this crime unfolded while the Madlanga commission of inquiry continues to probe the integrity and credibility of the very institution these officers represent.
According to the Mpumalanga police, the robbery in Mashishing was a well-coordinated operation involving three vehicles, one of which was a marked SAPS VW Golf GTI belonging to the Polokwane flying squad. The base of operation for the vehicle is 210km away from the crime scene in Mashishing.
The use of a police vehicle in a criminal act is not just shocking; it’s symbolic of how deeply corruption has seeped into the ranks of the police service.
The timing could not be worse. The Madlanga commission is resuming its hearings today after a short break last week, when crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo fell ill. Evidence leaders have requested that proceedings continue in camera due to the sensitive nature of forthcoming testimonies.
This means that, should the commission grant their request, then the media and the public will be shut out from hearing what could be the most explosive phase of the inquiry regarding the involvement of senior people in the police and the government.
The revelations so far, from Khumalo, KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, and national commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola, have already painted a grim picture of a police service entangled in politics, greed and criminal enterprise.
One would have thought that the fear of exposure would have deterred officers from further criminality. Instead, the Mashishing robbery shows the opposite: that criminality within police ranks continues with brazen impunity.
That the stolen goods included illicit cigarettes worth R1.2m suggests a calculated intent to sustain the black-market trade, the sphere dominated by crime cartels, whose harrowing activities and closeness to power have been outlined at the Madlanga commission.
When police themselves become facilitators of the shadow economy, the line between law enforcement and lawbreaking collapses completely, and the country cannot afford that.
SA cannot progress while its protectors double as predators. The police must urgently cleanse their ranks and those in power must confront the rot at its roots, not just at its surface.
The time for hollow promises of reform is over. Without integrity in law enforcement, there can be no justice, no trust and no future for the nation.
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