A top cop we can trust?

NATIONAL police commissioner Riah Phiyega is not having a good time. Her performance at the Farlam commission of inquiry into the Marikana killings has projected her as little concerned about police discipline, sometimes out of touch with operational matters and, significantly, unconcerned about the national mood.

Former corporate titan Phiyega — full names Mangwashi Victoria Phiyega — has been a study in contrasts while testifying at the commission. She has sat in the proverbial “hot seat”, stone-faced, fending off every criticism of her team.

She has defended police actions on that fateful day in Marikana, even venturing that police had a good plan that she thinks was not executed properly.

As a leader, we expect Phiyega to defend the boots on the ground in the manner that she has.

After all, in the military they say that in the face of a retreat, a battalion at war must never leave anyone back in the field.

Clearly her staff would be delighted to have such a boss, who takes heavy blows publicly to defend their actions. What puzzles us is that this defence comes in the face of systematic blunder after blunder in the basics of public-order policing. Even when given the opportunity to be self-critical, to take responsibility where it is warranted, she has not come to the party.

She has also appeared keen to defend her political superiors. Politically, she has done the right thing to immediately save her own skin from danger, but professionally she has looked vulnerable and not in control.

She has not been helped by events elsewhere in the country. Incidents of severe police excesses, such as in the images that went viral of police dragging a young Mozambican man behind a bakkie for a traffic offence, suggest that police took little or nothing away from the fiasco at Marikana. They have made a mockery of the saying that experience is the best teacher.

South Africans want to see a national police commissioner who is in full control of her force, is demonstrably operationally aware, and knows that her first task is to protect all who live in SA.

The hesitant commissioner they have seen at the Farlam commission of inquiry has left many wondering whether they can trust her to do that.