President Cyril Ramaphosa names Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane as the acting National Police Commissioner after General Fannie Masemola was suspended,
Image: Picture: Oupa Mokoena / Independent Newspapers
President Cyril Ramaphosa names Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane as the acting National Police Commissioner after General Fannie Masemola was suspended,
Image: Picture: Oupa Mokoena / Independent Newspapers
According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry's final findings will be released before any official action or decision regarding the future of suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu is made.
Ramaphosa addressed the status of Mchunu while announcing the precautionary suspension of National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola during a briefing at the Union Buildings on Thursday.
Mchunu is currently suspended due to serious allegations of corruption and links to organised crime.
The suspension was triggered by explosive allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who accused Mchunu of protecting criminal syndicates and drug cartels, and instructing the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
Mkhwanazi also accused Mchunu of interfering in sensitive police investigations.
During his briefing, Ramaphosa stated that he cannot use his constitutional authority to dismiss Mchunu without a proper investigation and verified facts, adding that acting on untested allegations would be unfair.
While Mchunu previously claimed the president concurred with the PKTT's disbandment, Ramaphosa denied any such consultation or approval in his written submission to the Parliament Ad Hoc Committee.
Political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said Ramaphosa has been consistent when it comes to letting processes run their course, adding that this allows him to do nothing and let the outcomes of the processes dictate measures that need to be taken.
“This modus operandi is playing itself out in both the case of Mchunu and the matter relating to the Phala Phala scandal. Minister Mchunu's fate will be decided by the Madlanga Commission. President Ramaphosa’s submission to the Ad Hoc Committee of Parliament investigating criminality and political interference in the criminal justice system arguably sealed Minister Mchunu's fate. In his response, President Ramaphosa contradicted Minister Mchunu’s version regarding the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team,” he said.
Another political analyst, Zakhele Ndlovu, said Ramaphosa is clearly buying time to protect his close ally, arguing that Mchunu has been shown to have disbanded the PKTT without consultation.
“This puts the president in a compromising position. When will Ramaphosa appear before the Madlanga Commission to clarify when he became aware of the disbandment and what actions he took?” he asked, adding that the president needs to explain why he did not take action against Mchunu after he found out about the disbandment of the PKTT.
“Clearly, if Mkhwanazi had not held the July press briefing, we wouldn't have known about Mchunu's transgressions. Why wait for the final report and waste taxpayers' money?”
During the briefing, Ramaphosa announced the appointment of Lt-Gen Puleng Dimpane, who served as Divisional Commissioner for Financial Management Service, as the acting national police commissioner.
The decision follows Masemola's appearance in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court earlier this week, where he was charged with four counts of contravening the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The charges are linked to the irregular awarding of a multimillion-rand SAPS health services tender to Medicare24, a company associated with alleged criminal figure Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
ActionSA said that while Masemola’s suspension was widely expected, given the seriousness of the allegations against him, South Africans cannot be expected to accept a cycle of acting appointments.
“The continued reliance on 'acting' appointments in critical positions such as the Minister of Police and the National Commissioner undermines stability within SAPS,” said the party’s MP, Dereleen James.
Political analysts have questioned President Cyril Ramaphosa's decision to wait for the Madlanga Commission to complete its work before he takes action against Senzo Mchunu, the suspended Police Minister.
Image: Phando Jikelo
James said that although ActionSA supports decisive action to protect the integrity of the SAPS, these repeated reactive interventions point to a deeper failure of leadership and oversight.
She added that Ramaphosa allowed a situation to develop where allegations of criminality and misconduct at the highest levels of government and law enforcement have become commonplace.
The DA said Masemola’s suspension is a necessary step to protect the integrity of the office and to ensure that the SAPS can continue to function while due process takes its course.
The party said this also lays bare the deeply alarming state of SAPS senior management, adding that what South Africa is seeing now is the consequence of years of weak leadership, blurred accountability, and a failure to clean out compromised networks inside the SAPS.
Civil rights organisation, AfriForum, described Masemola’s suspension as the shameful result of the long-standing systemic decline of the SAPS.
The group said that with this suspension, Masemola joins the ranks of many of his predecessors who were forced to leave office due to corruption, misconduct, fraud, and incompetence.
manyane.manyane@inl.co.za