High office of blunders
THE position of the national police commissioner continues to be under fire as the incumbent Riah Phiyega stumbles from one scandal to another.
After her dismal performance at the Marikana Commission, marked more by her defensive attitude than a desire to help the commission resolve crucial issues, Phiyega’s tenure can no longer avoid being compared to those of her predecessors.
Since Marikana, she has had to answer to a litany of blunders, including the appointment of Major-General Bethuel Zuma as Gauteng commissioner, only for this decision to be reversed a few hours later. Phiyega’s office did not check if Zuma was suitable, and so attracted more embarrassment and disillusionment with this high office of law enforcement.
The national commissioner office can ill afford to have its credibility under attack, given the high level of crime in South Africa, which includes some of the highest murder and rape rates in the world.
More disheartening is the rising number of police officers being arrested for criminal acts, as well as cases of police brutality.
There are good cops out there who just want to do a decent job. But with the national commissioner facing allegations of defeating the ends of justice, it is understandable that good cops become disillusioned. Their chief is not giving them hope.
Some officers have voiced publicly that they feel abandoned by their leadership, which more often finds itself embroiled in politics rather than law enforcement.
More worrisome is the revelation that some officers feel they cannot aspire to higher ranks, alleging that promotion is not informed by the personal achievements of officers, but by who is the most politically connected.
As the call rises for Phiyega to step down amid allegations that she defeated the ends of justice by alerting Western Cape commissioner Arno Lamoer that he was under investigation, legal experts point to her ultimate expulsion if found guilty.
If that eventually happens, Phiyega will be the third national commissioner to be sacked for misconduct, after Jackie Selebi and Bheki Cele.
As much as Phiyega, a technocrat, was welcomed as a breath of fresh air, it appears this position is a poisoned chalice. Is the office spitting out its incumbents because they are not police officers?
Perhaps bungles from this office over the years are communicating one clear message to the country: give back the national commissioner position to a deserving career cop.