Expedient political appointments do the country an injustice

IFIND it hard to help, but the sight of Riah Phiyega evokes pity in me. She cuts this lonely and out-of-sorts figure. It has been like that since she took over as national commissioner of the South African Police Service last year. No matter how much she tries to convince us that she is a real cop, she just doesn’t cut it. I have really tried hard to take her seriously, but each time I see her my heart just sinks and I wonder why she is subjecting herself to such torture and ridicule.

The answer to my wondering came via an interview she had with the Sowetan this week. In it she disclosed that she was ready for retirement when she was approached for the job.

This is how she put it: “I will encourage many professionals to, at some point, join government when they have done all they wanted to do with their lives. I think our government and our nation deserves some social responsibility and some social investment.”

Very fine, noble and admirable sentiments, But, as the young people say, REALLY?

Some people go farming, work at orphanages and old-age homes or help out at the SPCA when they retire. The more energetic will start their own businesses, sit on boards, do consultancy work and avail themselves of whatever work there is to keep themselves busy and their minds sharp.

Few retirees, however, would consider heading up a 200 000member police force the kind of work to take on “when they have done all they wanted to do with their lives”.

The purpose here is not to run down Phiyega’s civic-mindedness. Heaven knows, this country needs all hands on deck as we attempt to reverse the apartheid legacy and build a dynamic nation.

It is just that in the 18 months she has been in office she has proved over and over the wrongness of the government’s non-merit-based appointment policy when it comes to strategic positions.

You just had to watch her handling of the Marikana massacre to see that South Africa’s policing deserved better leadership. In her quest to be as gung ho as her popular predecessor, Bheki Cele, she effectively told the police they should be proud they shot dead 34 blacks. “Don’t be sorry about what happened,” she said at the time. Her squirming and non-answers during cross-examination at the Marikana Commission were cringeworthy.

She crowned her blundering ways with her botched appointment of Bethuel Zuma as the new Gauteng provincial commissioner last weekend. (I am reliably informed that the gentleman in question strongly prefers to be referred to as Bethuel rather than his African name, so it would be appreciated if we all respected his wishes.)

What the Bethuel Zuma episode demonstrated is that Phiyega is not in charge. She is told what to do and say and she acquiesces. It would not be putting it too strongly if you called her puppet, but a puppet without the attitude and wit of Chester Missing.

In the interview with the Sowetan she also put herself up as role model, saying that “at least young women and girls there, I can tell them that they can be national police commissioner”. Not! Young women and young girls seeking a career in the police service should actually aspire to being real law enforcers with real power. What Phiyega is doing with her current role is a disservice to her own fantastic career in the business world, where she was a respected role model to young women and young men.

Her appointment as head of police last year confirmed a trend of pushing people into positions they are neither qualified nor suitable for, with the only criteria being that it is “safe” for the political masters to have them there.

On the same weekend that Phiyega botched the appointment of Bethuel (repeat BETHUEL) Zuma, the Presidency also announced unknown Mxolisi Nxasana as the new national director of public prosecutions.

Now, Nxasana may have secured acquittals for many of his clients as an attorney in Durban, and done sterling work as head of local law society and chairman of the Pinetown Boys’ High school governing body, but was he the best attorney-general South Africa’s legal profession could throw up?

As with the job of national police commissioner, heading the National Prosecuting Authority is a tough but prestigious post to which every ambitious lawyer should aspire. It should be known that only those with the best legal minds, a tremendous record, proven institutional leadership and unshakeable integrity can achieve that level.

The person who gets this job should not be so anonymous that the whole country, including even the legal profession, collectively says: “Who?” With Nxasana’s appointment, the president has set the bar really low.

These expedient appointments may suit the powers that be, but in the end the institutions suffer and the republic is done great harm.