police prediction scandal

 Prediction for the police in 2023 is laden with storms and scandals

From warnings of gang infiltration to the country’s top cop facing criminal accusations and stepping down, scandals slammed into the South African Police Service (SAPS) this year and conditions are ideal for even more to develop in 2023.

The year started with the dense storm clouds hovering over the SAPS finally bursting. In January, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) lodged criminal complaints against Khehla Sitole, the country’s highest-ranking police officer, alleging he failed to cooperate in a critical investigation relating to a detective’s assassination. Sitole denied it.

Just two months down the line, the end of March marked yet another pivotal – and scandalous – moment for the SAPS. Sitole’s contract was terminated and he stepped down in a move the Presidency described as “in the best interests of the country”. Lieutenant General Fannie Masemola then took position in the hot seat. By this point, though, a turbulent tone was set for the rest of the year.

Criminality and distrust

Certain crimes, for example kidnapping, rocketed and some figures linked to the SAPS pointed to it as being a service that not just fights crime, but also commits it. Former acting national police commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane was arrested again in September in relation to a second criminal case in which he was an accused.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority, Phahlane, along with five others (of whom three are Crime Intelligence officers), faced “charges of fraud, corruption, theft and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act pertaining to two police tenders issued in 2016, with an estimated value of R54-million”.

Fragmenting issues in the SAPS run deeper. Former police administration clerk Patricia Mashale told Parliament in December that she feared for her life and was in hiding because she blew the whistle on massive corruption in the police service relating to Free State.

Mashale said she did not trust members of the SAPS or the State Security Agency (SSA) to conduct a threat assessment on her. DM168 understands other past and present members of the service share Mashale’s feelings about the SAPS.

These and other SAPS storms that developed in 2022 will likely continue casting ominous clouds over the police in 2023, merging with fresh scandals that will also make landfall.