Firoz Cachalia is a Professor of Law at Wits and director of the Mandela Institute, from which he retires later this year. A globally regarded scholar, his expertise spans constitutional law and many other areas of specialisation.
Fourteen months ago, 67-year-old Professor Firoz Cachalia handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa a thumping report from the National Corruption Advisory Council (Nacac) he chairs.
The report makes a detailed critique of the SA Police Service (SAPS) and its Crime Intelligence division and offers deep recommendations for its reformation. It describes the institutions as weakened by internal dysfunction, political interference and poor leadership.
Ramaphosa has neither engaged with nor made public the report, but Cachalia will now have an opportunity to use it to clean up the police service. He was a Community Safety MEC in Gauteng and is a lawyer and professor of law.
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The report, written by Cachalia and his 10-person council, found that police crime intelligence was compromised by factionalism and a lack of capacity. It also found that there was poor coordination between SAPS and other anti-corruption agencies and that the failure to act on intelligence or support prosecutions is a systemic issue. The council found that weak intelligence undermines efforts to address high-level corruption and delays prosecutions.
On Crime Intelligence, the council recommended the urgent reform and professionalism of the division; that there should be integrity vetting for SAPS leadership and (again) stronger coordination with anti-corruption bodies.
Cachalia is a Professor of Law at Wits and director of the Mandela Institute, from which he retires later this year. A globally regarded scholar, his expertise spans constitutional law and many other areas of specialisation.
He was Gauteng MEC for Community Safety from 2004 to 2009 (therefore, some experience in police and security management) and MEC for Economic Development from 2009 to 2010. He is a veteran of the liberation movements and a member of the ANC, also part of the well-known and politically active Cachalia family. His brother is Judge Azhar Cachalia, and his cousin is the former DA MP Ghaleb Cachalia, among many other family leaders.
His style is firm but independent, and he is a quiet thinker - in all those respects, very similar in mien to Senzo Mchunu, whose role he will fulfil in an acting capacity.
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The Nacac members are:
- · Kavisha Pillay
- · David Harris Lewis
- · Nkosana Dolopi
- · Barbara Schreiner
- · Advocate Nokuzola Gloria Khumalo
- · Professor Firoz Cachalia (who will serve as chairperson)
- · Sekoetlane Phamodi
- · Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki
- · Inkosikazi Nomandla Dorothy Mhlauli (who will serve as deputy chairperson)
ChatGPT was used to summarise the Nacac findings and was checked before and after. DM
