With so many dynamics involving control and criminality swirling around the police and the criminal justice system, it is difficult to know where the truth lies. And, with the march against illegal immigrants now just days away, the rule of law is about to be tested fundamentally. In the centre of all of these major tests is the acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia.

When President Cyril Ramaphosa approached Firoz Cachalia to become the police minister on an acting basis, he must have known that it would be a nearly impossible job.

It was in the wake of the KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's claims that then Police Minister Senzo Mchunu was heavily involved in a criminal syndicate, and had acted illegally in trying to disband the police's Political Killings Task Team.

Testimony at the Madlanga Commission has since shown it is almost impossible for Mchunu to return, National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola has been suspended and virtually every weekend features the arrest of a high-ranking police officer.

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Then, last week, it emerged that the NPA's Investigating Directorate Against Corruption was planning to arrest the SAPS Intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo.

'Blood will flow'

This led Mkhwanazi to say there was a "war" going on in the criminal justice system, and that "blood will flow".

This week, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) head Andrea Johnson told News24 that she found those comments "devastating", asking, "whose blood will flow, ours?"

It is a completely legitimate question. While Mkhwanazi might well have been upset that a friend and a person he believes is working with him...