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Writer's pictureChris Botha
Mar 297 min read

DE RUYTER, UKRAINE AND POLICING ON A HARTENBOS FRIDAY

By Chris Botha



On this Friday (24 February 2023) three issues are riding high in the Botha household. Andrѐ de Ruyter takes prime spot. The United Nations (UN) General Assembly (GA) resolution that Russia should withdraw from Ukraine (and SA choosing to abstain during the voting process) runs second. General Fannie Masemola, current National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, enters the scene also. This because I, after having spent more than half a century in societal safety, believe in our constitution(i) and therefore that the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS) should visibly “manage and control”(ii) the work of policing(iii), obviously inclusive of allegations of high-level corruption. The National Commissioner must do this even if the politicians of South Africa do not like it. After all, in a constitutional democracy, it is not as much about what the President or the Minister says as it is about what the law says(iv).



By now, all South Africans and probably the rest of the world know that De Ruyter has publicly unmasked the alleged relationship between criminal activity at Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned electrical power utility, and the African National Congress (ANC) government of South Africa in an interview with Annika Larsenv on television. People also know about the findings of the “Zondo Commission” of inquiry, and the allegations of ANC-in-government involvement in state capturevi. The media in general is active in reporting on Eskom (and our load-shedding crisis), and the whole cabal is evident in published books also.viiThe latest crime statistics (viii) were released earlier this week, and it is alleged that crime pays well in South Africa(ix). Anybody working against criminal activity is an open target. Although, in the strict sense of the word, De Ruyter is not a whistleblower, we know that South Africans who make allegations “from the inside” can expect rough treatment in South Africa, even death(x).



The participants to some of the social media groups that I am a member of share a policing and academic interest. I asked them a question on WhatsApp yesterday: “In the light of Andrѐ de Ruyter’s remarks on South Africa’s government, what must the South African Police Service do immediately?” Here is a summary of their views:

  • Political issues: Although the question was about the SAPS, most comments were on the political issues around the De Ruyter case. Participants felt that there is no political will to deal with corruption because the current politicians are corrupt. The ANC is avoiding the issue by smoke screening and focussing attacks on De Ruyter rather than on the problem. The ANC Secretary General should go ahead with legal action against De Ruyter: let evidence be led and cross-examined, this will expose the corrupt ANC politicians in public in a court of law. There is little hope of any impactful, effective, or valuable action from the compromised President and Executive. Parliamentary oversight, given the ANC’s dominant party status, is equally compromised – Parliament will, by majority vote, do what the ANC tells it to do. This flies in the face of true democracy. Chapter 9 institutions are either in chaos, or lapdogs to the ANC, while the Auditor General reports show lack of government compliance but have no teeth. The National Prosecution Authority does not perform effectively, and the courts are increasingly faltering. The Solidarity Movement or the Democratic Alliance political party are forced to take the ANC-in-government to court for it to govern in terms of SA law, it does not do so by itself. Government is seeking to dismantle the police through de-professionalism so that they can deploy soldiers in the country.(xi)

  • Policing issues: Participants believed the SAPS is simply a parking place for nepotistic appointments, not for dedication to the ideals of policing. Our situation is one of organised crime on a high level involving many high-profile public figures. Therefore,that “we do not have a complainant statement, so we cannot investigate” - the State is legally entitled to be the complainant), investigate, arrest, and follow proceedings for the “quick judging to jail” concept(xii). Top detectives should do the investigations, even if it means contracting those who have left the SAPS (we do not have the luxury of nationalist–populist political exclusions of excellent investigators). International advisors should assist the investigative teams. Investigative teams would do well to use the former Scorpion’s “prosecutor-led” model that was used highly successfully in SA before.(xiii)



Earlier in the day, my eyes caught a LinkedIn message by Professor Abel Esterhuyse, Chair of the Department of Strategic Studies at Stellenbosch University. Esterhuyse reported on an article in The Guardian about a resolution passed at the UNGA yesterday(xiv). The resolution calls for Russia to immediately and unconditionally withdraw from Ukraine. In favour of the resolution were 141 countries, 7 were against, and 32 countries abstained. The BRICS countries voted as follows: Brazil voted in favour of the resolution, Russia against, while India, China and South Africa abstained. Four of the five countries in the BRICS group were thus not in favour of the resolution that Russia withdraws from Ukraine immediately and unconditionally. They, our country included, were not in favour of disagreeing with the infringement of the rights of people in a sovereign country by a violent aggressor. According to The Guardian article, South Africa, though our representatives, stressed that:

  • the principles of territorial integrity in the UN Charter were sacrosanct;

  • and applied in the case of Ukraine;

  • but claimed the resolution would not advance the cause of peace.


Esterhuyse, in his LinkedIn post, refers to this way of thinking by our government as “an ANC dichotomy”.


To me, both De Ruyter and Ukraine are significant in South African policing terms. Consider what could happen should we “translate” South Africa’s response at the UN to our internal policing environment. In our constitutional state, with the rule of law paramount, South Africans can draft a resolution that may read like this: South Africa must immediately and unconditionally respect, protect, promote, and fulfil the rights of all people in South Africa (given the crime statistics in general, and the latest crime statistics in particular). We can do this because South Africa, through our representatives, frequently stress that:

  • the principles of human rights, poignantly and aptly described in the Bill of Human Rights of the Constitution, 1996, are sacrosanct;

  • and applies to all people in South Africa;

  • but when De Ruyter links the ANC-in-government with corruption and other criminality, it is highly upset with him, threatens him, and exercises its shareholder influence to remove him from his Eskom position with immediate effect.


What to make of this way of thinking by South Africa’s government? Well, from the little survey of policing pracademics (policing practitioners who participate in academia) and policing acapracs (academics who participate in the world of policing practitioners)xv I came to understand that it is not merely an issue of “no nation has friends, only interests”(xvi). Instead, it could be that the friends of nations are indeed their interests. Against De Ruyter’s allegation of a minister saying “...in order to pursue the greater good, you have to enable some people to eat a little bit”(xvii) one is perhaps looking for the ANC’s friends who are also their interests, and not necessarily in the interest of the rest of us.



This is the ideal place for our brother Fannie Masemola to make an entrance.



The politics-policing relationship in our country should be redesigned. Policing in South Africa is simply too important to be left to the strange thinking of the political role players that we see in action every day of our lives. Whereas the praxis/academe relationship can, and should, play a significant role in the design process, it is the National Commissioner that should take the lead. Remember, in our constitutional democracy, it is not about what the Minister or the President are saying, but what the law says. Let us do what the participants in the survey suggest: act in terms of sections 205 (3) and 207 (1) of the Constitution, 1996. Should the Minister’s policy (section 206) and directives (section 207 (2)) be in opposition to the word and spirit of the Constitution, 1996, the standard practice should be to redirect the politician, not the practitioner. Let us do this while the praxis/academe partnership is looking for another political model that will truly serve all the people of this country, not the current discredited political elite only.


Cjb24/2/2023


 

i - The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (“the Constitution, 1996”).

ii - Section 207 (2) of the Constitution, 1996.

iii - Section 205 (3) of the Constitution, 1996, dealing with “the objects of the police service”.

iv - Section 1 (c) of the Constitution, 1996: South Africa is inter alia founded on the “Supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law”.

v - Well-known South African journalist and TV presenter. Given her involvement with the current affairs show Carte Blanche, Larsen is not unfamiliar with controversial interviewing.

vi - See Ferial Haffajee (2022, with Ivor Chipkin), “Days of Zondo: The fight for freedom from corruption”, Maverick 451.

vii - See Kyle Cowan (2022), “Sabotage. Eskom under siege”, Penguin Books. See also, inter alia, Jacques Pauw (2017), “The President’s Keepers: Those keeping Zuma in power and out of prison”, Tafelberg; Pieter-Louis Myburgh (2019), “Gangster State: Unravelling Ace Magashule’s Web of Capture”, Penguin Books; Ferial Haffajee (2022, with Ivor Chipkin), “Days of Zondo: The fight for freedom from corruption”, Maverick 451; Jacques Pauw (2022), “Our Poisoned Land: Living in the shadows of Zuma’s Keepers”, Tafelberg.

viii - In an interview with John Perlman on radio (see www.702.co.za), well known South African crime analyst Dr Johan Burger said: “We’ve been warning for a long time that on a year-on-year basis serious and violent crimes are increasing”.

ix - See, amongst numerous other references, Isaac Mashaba’s article on 26 April 2022 (“Crime pays well in South Africa: The political landscape is infested with nests of criminals”) where he says that our state officials and ministers have no shame in enriching themselves at the expense of those who are victims of natural disasters and poor economic policies (www.citizen.co.za).

x - See, amongst others, Mandy Wiener (2020), “The Whistleblowers”, Macmillan. This book was published before the August 2021 assassination of Babita Deokaran. See also Mark Shaw (2017), “Hitmen for Hire: Exposing South Africa’s Underworld”, Jonathan Ball Publishers.

xi - This comment is from a societal safety professional in Dublin, Ireland, provided as member of one of the WhatsApp groups.

xii - This comment is from a former Dutch police official, as member of one of the WhatsApp groups.

xiii - See the article by Kotie Geldenhuys, Servamus, April 2020, pp 10-16.

xv - See JC Raadschelders (2011), “Public Administration: The interdisciplinary study of government”, Oxford University Press.

xvi - Charles de Gaulle Quotes. (nd). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved 24 February 2023, from BrainyQuote.com Website: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/charles_de_gaulle_379735

xvii - The visual interview was distributed, and reported on widely, in the public domain.


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