In the space of just a few weeks, South Africa has been shaken by a flurry of political scandals, arrests, assassinations, and suspensions that read like the script of a crime thriller. But this is not fiction. From the corridors of government to the backrooms of political parties, we are witnessing either the collapse of our democratic institutions or the long-overdue reckoning with the criminalisation of politics. The real question is: is the rot finally being exposed?
One of the explosive claims made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi was that when Vusumuzi “Cat” Matlala was arrested, police discovered messages on his devices indicating he was receiving inside information from police “fixers”, including meetings arranged with suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.
Cat Matlala, a name tied to shady tenders, including one linked to murdered whistleblower Babita Deokaran, has most recently received a tender with Tshwane SAPS. His case is not an outlier. It is part of a wider, disturbing pattern: police officials enabling criminal syndicates, with political figures complicit in the cover-up.
The suspension of Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu following Mkhwanazi’s damning claims is only the beginning. It is alleged that Mchunu protected criminal networks within the police turning the justice system into the very problem it should be solving. Journalist Mandy Wiener has called the positions of police minister and national commissioner a “poisoned chalice” and these revelations seem to prove it. Yet the idea of high-ranking police figures colluding with criminals is not new. Think Jackie Selebi and Radovan Krejcir. This is a cycle we have seen before.
Shortly after Mchunu’s suspension, Patriotic Alliance (PA) deputy leader Kenny Kunene, until recently a PR councillor in the City of Johannesburg, was found in the company of Katiso “KT” Molefe, the alleged mastermind behind DJ Sumbody’s assassination. Kunene claimed he was escorting a journalist – yet that journalist has never reported on what would have been the scoop of a lifetime: Kunene being found at Molefe’s house during the arrest.
Kunene resigned, and the mayor has claimed the city’s “hands are tied.” This incident is yet another glimpse into the entanglement of political office and gangsterism.
Meanwhile, Gauteng Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola is reported to have attempted to intervene in Matlala’s arrest corroborating Mkhwanazi’s assertion that parts of the police are proverbially in bed with criminals. The system is protecting itself.
This past week, the Minister of Higher Education, Nobuhle Nkabane, resigned after being accused of lying to Parliament’s portfolio committee regarding the appointment of SETA board members. Her resignation means she escapes the very accountability that parliamentary oversight was supposed to ensure.
These are not isolated incidents. The list grows longer: the assassination of whistleblowers and construction mafia figures, allegations within the ANC, U.S. Treasury sanctions, and a justice system that increasingly appears either captured or hollowed out.
It is no coincidence that as state capacity erodes, criminal networks rise. The ANC, weakened and divided, can no longer police its own ranks let alone govern ethically. Political office is being used to legitimise criminal empires. Today’s councillors were yesterday’s construction mafia bosses. And tomorrow’s ministers? Who knows.
So what? This erosion of the line between politics and crime puts South Africa on the brink. As citizens lose faith in democratic systems, they may begin to embrace authoritarianism or strongman figures who promise order through force. The Patriotic Alliance’s recent calls to reinstate the death penalty while its leaders are under scrutiny are telling.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has responded by firing some implicated officials and promising yet another commission of inquiry. But after years of unattended recommendations gathering dust on his desk, society has little reason to believe that justice will follow.
Firoz Cachalia, a former ANC politician and now a Wits law professor, has been appointed interim Police Minister. He enters a poisoned environment, one where few believe the rule of law still applies evenly. Will he win public confidence in a country where institutions seem broken?
This last month has exposed a web of criminality so vast and interconnected that each new scandal feels less shocking than the last. Viewed in isolation, these incidents may appear as individual failures but step back, and the picture becomes clearer: a democracy under siege from within.
We cannot afford to normalise this rot. The fight against corruption must be unrelenting – not just for the sake of good governance, but for the survival of our democracy.
