The South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) condemns in the strongest terms comments made by KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi on Tuesday night during the sitting of a parliamentary ad-hoc committee investigating his whistle blowing allegations.
Mkhwanazi deviated from his witness statement and launched an extraordinary attack on media freedom by asking the ad-hoc committee, as well as joint standing committee on intelligence, to task the state security apparatus to conduct a counterintelligence investigation against the South African news media.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mkhwanazi doubled down on his stance, and called for the imprisonment of journalists and "heavy penalties" for journalists who err in their reporting "They must sit in Pollsmoor for a while," he added. This would represent a significant setback for media freedom in South Africa, reminiscent of the oppressive tactics employed by the Apartheid state to suppress truthful journalism.
This is a chilling attack on the Constitutional rights to a free press. We hope this will be publicly condemned by National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola and Police Minister Firoz Cachalia, as unwarranted and an unsubstantiated overreach of his powers.
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The context surrounding this unprecedented attack hinges on media reports on the activities of Crime Intelligence and, more specifically, reports on the findings of a report by the Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI) which recommends that Masemola should face criminal and disciplinary charges for approving the purchase of properties worth a collective R120 million by Crime Intelligence.
It also recommended charges against suspended head of Crime Intelligence, Major-General Dumisani Khumalo and suspended chief financial officer of Crime Intelligence, Major-General Philani Lushaba, for gross financial misconduct.
Mkhwanazi stated in the ad hoc committee that specific journalists should be targeted, including staff from Sunday Times, City Press and News24. Mkhwanazi claimed the IGI report that News24 had reported on was classified, and he maintained that the secrecy of Crime Intelligence’s operations was sacrosanct. He also questioned whether Crime Intelligence should be interrogated in open sessions of parliamentary committees. He said that even if there were alleged corrupt activities by Crime Intelligence, they needed to be investigated in secret, because revealing their activities would destabilise the country.
The media are protected from having to divulge their sources, a public interest protection that is given precedent in the high court’s rulings in Bosasa vs Basson (2012), and SABC vs Avusa (2010).
These threats against journalists and their sources, and any moves to investigate the media are intimidation tactics to protect the allegedly corrupt, and prevent legitimate journalistic work, in the public interest, to expose them.
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Crime Intelligence is not above the law. Over the past two decades, journalists have been at the forefront of exposing the abuse of the so-called secret slush fund in the CI. The context here is also that journalists, whistleblowers, investigators, lawyers, accountants, auditors, liquidators, and activists are either harassed or assassinated for uncovering nefarious activities.
Minister Cachalia and Commissioner Masemola must condemn any attempts to undermine the Constitutionally guaranteed freedom of our media, to target whistleblowers and to hide alleged corruption from the public. Failure to do so will herald the destruction of any semblance of democratic process in our country and will push us further into a country where unchecked power can no longer be interrogated.
Note to Editors:
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is a non-profit organisation whose members are editors, senior journalists, and journalism trainers from all areas of South African media. We are committed to championing South Africa’s hard-won freedom of expression and promoting quality, ethics, and diversity in the South African media. We promote excellence in journalism by fighting for media freedom, writing policy submissions, conducting research, and providing education and training programmes. SANEF is not a union.
