Illustrative image | Ian Cameron. (Photo: Sharon Seretlo / Gallo Images) | Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. (Photo: Darren Stewart / Gallo Images) 
Parliament’s police committee chair, Ian Cameron, says the formation of an ad hoc committee to probe KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s allegations of police corruption is a “positive process”.
Cameron was speaking at the Cape Town Press Club on Tuesday, 22 July, about the policing scandal that has exposed rival factions in South Africa’s law enforcement arena.
Watch: Inside Mkhwanazi’s claims: South Africa held hostage by criminal cartel
A joint meeting of Parliament’s police committee and its justice and constitutional development committee on Tuesday agreed to adopt their report recommending to the National Assembly that an ad hoc committee be formed to investigate Mkhwanazi’s allegations.
The decision followed a directive from National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza earlier this month asking the committees to come up with an appropriate approach to oversight concerning the allegations.
The committees had considered options including conducting a full investigative inquiry under the Powers, Privileges and Immunities Act and exercising their conferring powers in terms of National Assembly Rule 169 — which dictates how committees can or must consult or meet with each other. Ultimately, it decided on the ad hoc committee because it is “task-specific and time-bound”.
Read more: ‘SA will see fire if anything happens to Mkhwanazi’ — Parliament hears warning sentiment from MP
“The Committees are acutely aware of the need for the National Assembly to ensure an expeditious process. The Committees, therefore, recommend the establishment of an ad hoc Committee in accordance with National Assembly Rule 253,” stated the report.
“This is because the scope of an ad hoc committee is task-specific and time-bound, contrary to the general oversight function of portfolio committees, which, in contrast, is ongoing and often requires juggling competing priorities.”
The recommendation of an ad hoc committee comes after Mkhwanazi held a press conference on 6 July and claimed that a drug cartel in Gauteng was controlling a high-level criminal syndicate that extended into the South African Police Service, the Police Ministry, Parliament, official prison structures, the judiciary and other law-enforcing authorities.
He also alleged that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, along with several other figures, including the deputy national commissioner for crime detection, Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya (who has since been told to take special leave), had undermined investigations into political killings and organised crime.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has since announced that a judicial commission of inquiry will probe Mkhwanazi’s allegations, and placed Mchunu on leave with immediate effect.
Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe is filling Mchunu’s position until August, when Firoz Cachalia, the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council’s chairperson and former Gauteng community safety MEC, will take over.
Cameron said Ramaphosa’s response to Mkhwanazi’s allegations felt “like burying one’s head in the sand”.
“None of these inquiries or judicial commissions have really shown any form of result — apart from destroying tax coffers. [They haven’t] shown any form of real justice,” said Cameron.
Good result
However, Cameron said he was “confident” that the ad hoc committee in Parliament could “have a good result”.
“It depends on how the Speaker also structures it — we don’t have a direct say over that. Then that ad hoc committee would sit and determine their terms of reference, and obviously that is the critical part,” he said.
“We don’t want to unnecessarily have duplication over anything that the commission is doing, but I think Parliament is already perfectly positioned to do the relevant interrogation of many of the allegations that have been made, and hopefully then we would be able to see quicker results and recommendations.”
Cameron said the report was expected to be tabled in the National Assembly on Wednesday, 23 July.
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The committees have recommended that the ad hoc committee process be concluded within 90 days from it being formed.
“We have recommended three months for the ad hoc committee process, and hopefully we’d be able to get through it in that time. I don’t think it needs to take much longer for the scope of what we would look at,” said Cameron.
While the terms of reference are expected to be decided only once the ad hoc committee has been formed, the committees, in their report to the National Assembly, have recommended that, in addition to Mkhwanazi’s allegations, “consideration is given to identifying any legislative and/or policy failures or gaps that may have contributed to this matter”. DM