She is protected, says Mbalula

Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has found himself between MP Makhosi Khoza and a hard place, with Khoza saying she doesn’t trust the police.

“The death threats continue,” Khoza said yesterday.

“I’m honestly confused about Minister Mbalula’s offer. I wish he could publicly withdraw unconditionally his statements that equated people like me with suicide bombers. He threatened dismissal for MPs like me; as fate would have it, KZN ANC is now taking steps to charge me.”

In the war of words, Mbalula said Khoza was protected, whether she knew about it or not, and the death threat against Khoza was “immediately transferred to a commissioned officer because of its seriousness. An assessment on her security was conducted and ... constantly looked at whilst the criminal threats to her life were investigated”.

She was not “left alone, even if she didn’t know about it”.

Not so, said Khoza, stating she had spoken to a junior investigator and the assessment had been done months before a death threat was made.

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said police would have to rise above politics.

“The minister of police is someone who has openly spoken about Khoza’s position, he has called her a suicide bomber, and has said to vote against President Jacob Zuma is suicide,” Mathekga said. “So she will have doubt as to whether or not the police can protect her. I do understand where she is coming from and the police will have to make a superhuman effort to reassure her.”

It was a concern when a parliamentarian went public and said she did not trust the police, Mathekga said.

“He’s talking about suicide, whichever context you place this in, you can’t trivialise it, people die. He had many words to choose from but he opted for that one because he wanted to drive a message home.”

David Lewis of Corruption Watch believes there is a general lack of trust in the police. “We’re involved in a campaign to at least try and have some public participation and transparency in choosing the next commissioner of the police, as well as the head of the Hawks.”

“This would ensure some credibility is restored to the police, but as long as we have such instability at the top levels of the police, it’s going to be very difficult to generate public trust in the police service itself,” said Lewis.