South Africa: New Judicial Commission Must Not Become Another Zondo-Style Dead End

The Democratic Alliance notes President Ramaphosa's announcement of a judicial commission of inquiry into the explosive allegations made by the KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner, General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. However commissions are only as good as their consequenes.

These allegations strike at the heart of South Africa's criminal justice system, implicating senior law enforcement, prosecutorial, intelligence, and even executive officials in organised crime and systemic corruption.

While we welcome the announcement of a leave of absence for the Minister of Police as a necessary step, it comes after relentless DA pressure and a national outcry. These allegations provided the President with an opportunity to show bold and firm leadership. Instead, he has once again outsourced executive responsibility to a commission, and South Africans have grown cynical of talk shops, task teams and commissions which they see as buying time and avoiding accountability.

The DA will not accept a years-long process that gathered damning evidence only to deliver zero accountability. The country cannot afford another elaborate filing cabinet of findings that gather dust while the politically connected escape justice. The DA will hold the president to account on every finding and recommendation made by this committee, and we will fight in cabinet and parliament for swift and visible action. Parliament must not be sidelined and the work of parliament to hold the executive to account must continue unabated and undeterred.

While we welcome the replacement of Minister Mchunu, we also reject the attempt to create the illusion of reform while ANC ministers accused of corruption remain firmly in cabinet at the behest of presidential prerogative. The presence of Ministers Nkabane and Simelane, exposes the ongoing selective and performative accountability that South Africans grow tired of.

The President has taken a step, but not the leap that this moment demands. If he truly wants to root out criminal syndicates from the state, he must start with his own Cabinet. South Africans deserve action, not more commissions.

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