Mkhwanazi uniform signals a deeper war within policing

2026-03-24 - 06:10

There was a time following KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s now epoch-defining 6 July press conference when it seemed reasonable to ask “was it really necessary for him and the cops present at the press conference to wear camouflage fatigues?” Even acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia weighed in with what sounded like a reasonable opinion suggesting that Mkhwanazi had gone overboard with what appeared like some sort of coup d’état announcement in some faraway African country. What people did not know at the time was that the forces that Mkhwanazi was fighting against at his press conference were so powerful, so dark and so big and scary that the highest-ranking cops in the country would be reluctant to mention their names publicly. Mkhwanazi’s press conference did not simply set in motion events that would lead to just another “by the way” commission of inquiry that will go the way that such have gone in the past: without impact and easily forgotten. The final report of the commission is far from being written and the likes of sergeant Fannie Nkosi are not yet done in revealing what a sad state of affairs the country’s police service has sunk to. But every right-thinking citizen can see Mkhwanazi’s military fatigues symbolised the battle that every good cop is up against on a daily basis. It seemed surreal when Marius van der Merwe, who was known as Witness D, was killed shortly after giving damning testimony at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that is investigating allegations of police and the judiciary being infiltrated by criminal syndicates. It was not simply that he implicated top-ranked police officers in a murder cover-up, but that he had been given some sort of anonymity by the commission to prevent the exact kind of situation that unfolded after he appeared at the commission. The brazen way he was assassinated right as the commission continues to sit and hear testimony from witnesses goes to the heart of why it was important for Mkhwanazi to dress up in the way that he did on 6 July. Mkhwanazi, who knew the kind of foe the country is facing, is not fazed by commissions of inquiry and will stop at nothing to continue their reign of terror. At the time, the country had no idea the rule of law is so twisted that the suspect in the case of the assassination of Witness D would turn out to be a former highly trained police Special Task Force member. And the weapon of choice in his assassination? An AK47. The weapon that has come up so many times at the commission in relation to a chain of high-profile murders. No-one could have foreseen that the level of corruption in the police force would be so deep that a member of the Tshwane MMC, Kholofelo Morodi, would end up suspended amid allegations of tender fraud and irregularities. The testimony of Nkosi has made corruption in the police force and in government sound as regular as breathing. Rumours have always abounded concerning appointments to metro police positions. But no-one could have predicted that an actual corrupt process had been set up, managed by a member of the South African Police Service who is also a member of the organised crime unit and stationed in the office of the suspended deputy national police commissioner, General Shadrack Sibiya. Had Mkhwanazi not stood up in his military fatigues police uniform on 6 July, South Africa would be well on its way to having a national police commissioner owned by the criminal underworld. NOW READ: Shading Malema? Ndlozi sends chilling warning about attacks on Mkhwanazi