Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi) 
Fourteen months ago, 67-year-old Professor Firoz Cachalia handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa a thumping report from the National Corruption Advisory Council (Nacac) he chairs.
The report makes a detailed analysis of the coordination across law enforcement agencies to identify the division of responsibilities in South Africa’s anti-corruption architecture. It identifies what it believes to be the ideal institutional architecture to fight corruption.
Ramaphosa has neither engaged with nor made public the report, but Cachalia will now have an opportunity to use it to clean up the police service. He was a Community Safety MEC in Gauteng and is a lawyer and professor of law.
The report, written by Cachalia and his 10-person council, set out ways to strengthen the capabilities and independence of law enforcement agencies, streamlining functions to manage duplication and facilitating collaboration and coordination.
What Makhwanazi’s bombshell showed was that the police service is divided into factions and that crime intelligence is beset with the same weaknesses identified by the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture which handed over its report to the President three years ago.
Various reports through the years have shown that police crime intelligence was compromised by factionalism and a lack of capacity. There is generally poor coordination between SAPS and other anti-corruption agencies.
Cachalia is a Professor of Law at Wits and director of the Mandela Institute, from which he retires later this year. A globally regarded scholar, his expertise spans constitutional law and many other areas of specialisation.
He was Gauteng MEC for Community Safety from 2004 to 2009 (therefore, some experience in police and security management) and MEC for Economic Development from 2009 to 2010. He is a veteran of the liberation movements and a member of the ANC, also part of the well-known and politically active Cachalia family. His brother is Judge Azhar Cachalia, and his cousin is the former DA MP Ghaleb Cachalia, among many other family leaders.
His style is firm but independent, and he is a quiet thinker – in all those respects, very similar in mien to Senzo Mchunu, whose role he will fulfil in an acting capacity.
The Nacac members are:
- Kavisha Pillay
- David Harris Lewis
- Nkosana Dolopi
- Barbara Schreiner
- Advocate Nokuzola Gloria Khumalo
- Professor Firoz Cachalia (who will serve as chairperson)
- Sekoetlane Phamodi
- Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki
- Inkosikazi Nomandla Dorothy Mhlauli (who will serve as deputy chairperson)
ChatGPT was used to summarise the Nacac findings and was checked before and after. DM
This report has been edited to more accurately reflect the work of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council. We apologise for earlier inaccuracies.