Illustrative image: Police and forensic investigators cordon off a crime scene. (Photo: Gallo Images / Netwerk24 / Deaan Vivier) | South African police. (EPA/STR) 
Last week, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu promised communities that he would deal with extortion gangs — groups of young men who demand money from people and use violence if they don’t get it.
At the same time, crime is again metastasizing into one of the biggest political issues of the moment, with clear demands from voters that it be dealt with.
The result of this is that police officers, often stuck in the middle, are themselves using more violence. In KwaZulu-Natal, the provincial police commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, appears to be growing more popular because his officers have killed people suspected of being involved in criminal activity.
At the same time, for several years the volume and frequency of vigilante — or “community justice” — killings have increased dramatically, indicating the frustration of communities who bear the brunt of violent crime.
While all politicians will publicly agree that there must be more respect for the law, achieving this will be extremely difficult for several reasons.
First, the majority in South Africa have never trusted police officers.
The police in the former Union of South Africa enforced colonial laws. They were followed by police officers who enforced apartheid laws, particularly the dompas.
Then there was a strange moment which has perhaps been underexamined.
During the transition to democracy, it would have been rational to expect that police officers from different sectors of our society would turn on each other.
The fact they didn’t is a testament to them and to the people managing the situation (including Nelson Mandela’s public decision to retain George Fivaz as national commissioner, and Fivaz’s role during that time).
Scant motivation for respect
However, shortly after that, it became clear that many people were having to pay bribes to police officers.
While most of these bribes involve money, some involve transactional sex.
In short, unlike many other societies, most people in our country have had little motivation to respect police officers.
And so high are the levels of police unaccountability, that it is clear to any police officer they can pretty much do what they want and get away with it.
On top of that, the leadership of the police appears to have almost deliberately conspired to weaken their legitimacy.
Former president Thabo Mbeki refused to dismiss Jackie Selebi as National Police Commissioner, even removing Vusi Pikoli as the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) when he wanted to institute criminal charges against Selebi.
Then, Mbeki’s successor, Jacob Zuma, started to use the police for political ends.
Richard Mdluli became head of the police Crime Intelligence Unit, a disaster from which the unit has still not recovered.
Even though he is out of power, Zuma is still trying to delegitimise the rule of law.
As former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo stated this week, this is deliberate.
And while President Cyril Ramaphosa has, to his credit, appeared to support the rule of law, he now has to deal with a justice minister accused of receiving money from the looted VBS bank.
It would appear impossible for Ramaphosa to claim he is supporting the rule of law if he allows Thembi Simelane to stay in office without her proving that she repaid the money she received.
All of this leads to our current situation.
For example, if a police officer were to tell a group of people to stop jaywalking, or to pick up the cigarette butts they had thrown to the ground, what would happen?
The most likely outcome is that the officer would be laughed at.
If she were to press the issue, call for backup or try to take stronger action, she would be accused of abusing her authority.
If this is the current situation, how can the rule of law be better enforced?
Leading by example (not)
The first and most obvious point is that leaders of society, and particularly politicians, are expected to lead by example. If our leaders do not respect the rule of law, no one else will. But they don’t.
The ANC has elected Nomvula Mokonyane as its deputy secretary-general despite the findings against her by the Zondo Commission.
The former National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula faces corruption charges.
MK has chosen, as part of a deliberate strategy, to include Brian Molefe in its parliamentary caucus, despite the findings against him.
The EFF’s Julius Malema and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi were cleared of assaulting a police officer despite video evidence of the officer being slapped. The party’s secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini, has been found guilty of assaulting a police officer and then suggested, that if the circumstances were the same, he “could do it again”.
The message this sends to society is that if you have enough power, either political or physical, then nothing can stop you from doing what you want.
To alter this would require a complete sea-change in our politics and the SAPS.
The leadership of the police would have to be appointed only on merit and in a completely transparent manner.
At present, the National Police Commissioner is appointed by the President. (While Ramaphosa opted for public interviews to select the heads of the SA Revenue Service and the NPA, he used only a “selection panel” for the current commissioner, Fannie Masemola.)
That person would have to be able to manage the leaders below them, quickly and effectively.
A different culture
This would necessitate changing the entire internal culture of the SAPS.
The Mpumalanga police commissioner, Daphney Manamela, is on suspension after demanding and receiving what were described as “presents” from the staff at police stations in her province.
Included in this list were shoes, a Smeg kettle, a TV stand supposedly worth R78,000 and other items.
The fact that officers — who presumably were paid less than her — felt they had to contribute towards these “gifts” sheds light on the internal culture of the police.
Masemola’s attempts to institute an inquiry into Manamela’s conduct have been challenged in court.
This suggests that for many police officers, the entire point is extraction, even from their fellow officers.
This points to the huge amount of work that has to be done in the SAPS. Only after this work is completed would the legitimacy of SAPS officers be established in many communities.
Of course, other measures could be implemented more quickly.
Police experts have pointed to the correlation between the number of guns in our society and the murder rate.
The number of guns and the number of murders both declined significantly in the years after the transition to democracy.
Then, before the pandemic, the number of guns and murders started to increase and jumped dramatically after the hard lockdowns.
This suggests that if guns can be removed, the murder rate will decline again — an identifiable point for police officers and leaders to focus on.
Unfortunately, despite the promises, it is unlikely that the SAPS will change in the near future and the rule of law will continue to suffer from a lack of legitimacy.
The result of this is likely to be increasing levels of violence, with criminals believing they can get away with it and communities taking the law into their own hands. DM