President Cyril Ramaphosa and on-leave police minister Senzo Mchunu are only hurting themselves, the party they represent and the image of government by delaying the inevitable.
Now that Mchunu has appeared on both platforms investigating damning accusations made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Gen-Lt Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, it seems obvious to everyone but him and his boss that there is no possible way Ramaphosa can justify keeping him on the job.
The only solace Mchunu and his supporters can take from proceedings at the Madlanga commission and the parliamentary ad hoc committee is that no one has so far delivered tangible evidence directly linking him to suspected crime syndicate boss, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, or any member of what Mkhwanazi and crime intelligence boss Gen Dumisani Khumalo call the “Big Five”.
At his now-famous press conference, one of the central claims Mkhwanazi made was that the minister had links to Matlala and that Mchunu’s questionable December 31 letter demanding the disbandment of the political killings task team (PKKT) was at the behest of the syndicate.
If proven, this charge could not only bring the minister’s 35-year career in formal politics to a crushing end, but could send him to jail.
But to this point, no witness has presented the ad hoc committee or any other commission with a smoking gun.
That is not to say it will not happen. Mchunu is still going to make his second appearance before retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga and his fellow commissioners in the new year. And who is to say that, by that date, evidence leader Adv Sello Mahlape wouldn’t have a curveball or two to throw at the embattled politician, leading to a new can of worms?
Until then, most would believe him to be in the clear on this score. What is clear, however, is that his close relationship with controversial fixer and self-proclaimed police crime intelligence informer Brown Mogotsi may have enabled Mogotsi to cultivate and maintain a financially beneficial relationship with Matlala.
However, the minister dismally failed to provide compelling reasons for the timing and the urgency of his New Year’s Eve letter to the ad hoc committee and the commission.
What we witnessed last week was the systematic demolition of his reasoning by Mahlape and the three commissioners.
Mchunu may have kept his cool throughout the grilling, but surely even he realised that the game was up. Even the re-questioning conducted by his lawyer, Adv Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, did little to convince the public, and probably the commission, that he had good reasons to act the way he did against the PKTT.
The whole saga has put into question, even among those who are not convinced that Mchunu is corrupt, his sense of judgment.
The public is left speculating about the real reasons for the minister’s actions: why he acted so soon after PKTT members raided Matlala’s home and why he didn’t deem it fit to consult with the national police commissioner, Gen Fannie Masemola, and their boss, the president, before acting.
You would think this is enough to make the minister decide to fall on his sword, that he would realise that the bond of trust between him and us, the governed, has been broken.
But no, he is staying on and still is fighting to keep his job. He seems oblivious to the huge damage that continues to be done every day he doesn’t resign.
Perhaps he believes he still has a realistic chance of being elected the ANC president in 2027 and thinks resigning from cabinet would ruin his chances.
But surely that horse has long bolted and what he should be concentrating on is preserving his dignity and clearing his name on the charge that he had associates in the criminal underworld.
For Ramaphosa, it is really unclear why he hasn’t yet demanded the minister’s resignation. His administration was hailed as a fresh breath of air when his choice for finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, decided to quit government on a far less serious allegation of having concealed that he visited the Gupta household.
The president also received a lot of praise for pressuring the then health minister Zweli Mkhize to tender his resignation over the Digital Vibe corruption story, even though authorities were clearly far from being able to bring the case before the courts.
So why the hesitation when it comes to Mchunu? The suspended minister owes us a great Christmas gift as a nation; he needs to step down so that our focus can be on the actual criminals and their aides in police uniforms.
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