Parliament's ad hoc committee tasked with investigating accusations that a drug cartel has infiltrated South Africa's criminal justice system and politics has found that witness testimony put before it points to an institutional law enforcement crisis.
The SAPS is facing a serious and multilayered institutional crisis, is how advocate Norman Arendse SC, the evidence leader of Parliament's ad hoc committee investigating law enforcement infiltration, described the outcome of its investigation late on Thursday, 28 May 2026.
The committee met for a briefing on a draft report that Arendse and his team compiled, based on its months-long hearings involving the testimony of dozens of witnesses.
Arendse gave an overview of witness testimony and the inferences drawn from this.
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It became clear that the ad hoc committee believes there have been serious lapses in national and municipal law enforcement.
Concerning overview
Some of the issues Arendse touched on during Thursday's late proceedings included:
- The politicisation of senior appointments in the SAPS and systematic governance failures, including in the National Prosecuting Authority;
- Necessary vetting and integrity processes;
- How the Independent Police Investigative Directorate needs to be independent of the police ministry; and
- Instability and governance failures in Crime Intelligence.
Arendse also turned his attention to several state officials.
Parliament's ad hoc committee has been investigating accusations first made in July last year by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
He alleged that a drug cartel, known as the Big Five, infiltrated South Africa's...
