South Africa police clash over political murder probes
Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi accused Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and other senior officials of interfering in investigations into political assassinations to shield politically connected people.
Mkhwanazi, who oversees police operations in KwaZulu-Natal province and previously served as acting national police commissioner, also accused other officials of obstructing police work against organised crime.
Mchunu has denied the allegations as 'insinuations made without evidence or due processes', the AFP news agency reported.
Ramaphosa described the matter as one of 'grave national security concern' and said it was 'receiving the highest priority attention'.
'It is vital that the integrity of the country's security services is safeguarded and that the rule of law is affirmed,' the president said in a statement late on Sunday.
Ramaphosa urged to act
Politicians across the political spectrum have called on the president to take action.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), the second-largest party in Ramaphosa's governing coalition, has called for an urgent debate in Parliament on corruption in the South African Police Service (SAPS).
'Our country will never win against violent crime, and our streets will never be safe, until the SAPS has robust integrity management inside and out,' said the DA's Ian Cameron, who also chairs Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police.
Another lawmaker on the committee, David Skosana of the uMkhonto weSizwe party, urged Mkhwanazi to lay charges against Mchunu within 24 hours.
The Economic Freedom Fighters called for the immediate suspension of Mchunu and Deputy National Police Commissioner for Crime Detection Lt. Gen. Shadrack Sibiya, who has also been implicated.
The Inkatha Freedom Party, whose deputy chief whip in Parliament, Khethamabala Sithole, was shot dead in what appeared to be a political killing in May, wants the president to appoint an independent commission of inquiry.
'The collective integrity of the SAPS has been alleged to be wholly compromised, and the country has every reason to be worried,' the party said.
South Africa's crime rate
South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world.
A report released last year by the Switzerland-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime documented a 108% increase in targeted killings, particularly political killings at the local municipal level, over the past decade.
In 2018, SAPS formed a task team to focus on political killings. The team has investigated more than 600 cases, arrested 436 suspects, and recovered 156 firearms, at least 55 of which were linked to political crimes, according to the Daily Maverick , a local media outlet.
At the end of last year, Mchunu requested that the unit be disbanded. When that did not happen, the unit's dockets containing information on political killings were seized, effectively freezing investigations.
Mkhwanazi said Mchunu shut down the task team because it had uncovered links between drug cartels, politicians, police, and prosecutors, the Mail&Guardian newspaper reported.
'All these statements made by him in public require an urgent, thorough and transparent investigation, on a proper platform,' Mchunu said.
DW
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Observer
3 days ago
- Observer
Greek ship sinks in Red Sea after attack: 4 dead, 7 rescued
Rescuers pulled seven crew members alive from the Red Sea on Wednesday and were searching for 14 still missing from the second of two freighters sunk within two days by suspected Ansar Allah attackers. Four of the 25 people aboard the Eternity C cargo ship were killed before the rest of the crew abandoned the vessel, which sank on Wednesday morning after being attacked on Monday and Tuesday, sources at security companies mounting the rescue said. The seven seafarers who were rescued had spent more than 24 hours in the water, they said. There was no comment from the Ansar Allah on the fate of the Eternity C, but the group claimed responsibility for a similar attack on Sunday targeting another ship, the Magic Seas. All crew from the Magic Seas were rescued before it sank. The attacks on the two ships renew a campaign by the fighters, who had attacked more than 100 ships from November 2023-December 2024 in what they said was solidarity with the Palestinians, but had halted their campaign this year. "We will continue to search for the remaining crew until the last light," said an official at Greece-based maritime risk management firm Diaplous. "We aim at a peaceful operation," the official said earlier. Both of the ships that were attacked flew Liberia flags and were operated by Greek firms. Eternity C was first attacked on Monday afternoon with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from speed boats by suspected Yemen-based Ansar Allah, maritime security sources said. Lifeboats were destroyed during the raid. By Tuesday morning the vessel was adrift and listing. Two security sources said on Wednesday that the vessel was hit again with sea drones on Tuesday, forcing the crew and armed guards to abandon it for the sea. The Ansar Allah stayed with the vessel until the early hours of Wednesday, one of the sources said. There were fears that some of the crew who jumped into the water may have been kidnapped by Ansar Allah, the source added. Skiffs were in the area as the rescue efforts were under way. The crew comprised 21 Filipinos and one Russian. Three armed guards were also on board, including one Greek and one Indian, who was one of those rescued. The vessel's operator, Cosmoship Management, has not responded to requests for confirmation of casualties or injuries. But if confirmed, the four reported deaths would be the first fatalities involving attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since June 2024. Greece has been in talks with Saudi Arabia, a key player in the region, over the latest incident, according to sources. The Red Sea, which passes Yemen's coast, has long been a critical waterway for the world's oil and commodities. Traffic has dropped since the Ansar Allah began targeting ships in November 2023 in what the group said was solidarity with Palestinians against Israel in the Gaza war. — Reuters
Observer
3 days ago
- Observer
The $232-billion opportunity hiding in plain sight
What if you were offered $232 billion to shape the future of your region? No contest. No catch. Only a choice. To act with care, with courage and with creativity. That figure is real. It is the projected gain for the Middle East by 2035 if climate action and artificial intelligence are pursued in tandem. Alone, they offer progress. Together, they reshape how we live, work and adapt. Technology that learns. Environments that recover. Societies that grow with more clarity, more fairness and more resilience. It can be easy to treat numbers like that as distant. But their meaning lives close to the ground. In how much food costs. In whether air conditioning becomes a necessity or a lifeline. In how many young people feel they have a place in the future that is arriving. And something is beginning to shift. In Riyadh, national investments are nurturing local AI talent. In the UAE, machine learning is already managing how energy flows through the grid. Algorithms forecast electricity demand and reduce waste. In coastal cities, AI tools help predict floods and alert responders. These are not future possibilities. They are happening now, across the region. In Cairo, a public school turned its courtyard into a garden. Teachers and students built shade from scrap wood, planted citrus trees in cracked pots and coded moisture sensors using secondhand tools. No fanfare. Just steady hands working in the heat, trusting that care can create change. In Muscat, a group of university students recently led a climate storytelling workshop. They gathered poems, field notes and oral histories. This was not data analysis, but its own kind of intelligence. One rooted in memory, place and attention. Their work moved through the room like wind through tall grass, soft but certain, mapping what still matters. Across the region, the conditions are here. The sun. The wind. The ambition. The memory of how to thrive with limits. Beyond the region, momentum is building. At the BRICS summit this week, Brazil proposed a global climate fund. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and China responded. The Global South is no longer waiting for signals from others. It is offering direction on its own terms. As the world looks towards COP30 in Belém later this year, more of the agenda will rise from places long underestimated. Still, money is just one tool. Code can calculate, but it cannot care. The rise of artificial intelligence also brings a cost few see. It devours energy to operate and learn. Progress calls for more than programming. It asks for discernment. For design that honours both people and planet. For the will to build systems for lives we may never live, in climates we may never feel. Artificial intelligence can optimise. Climate action demands vision. Together, they offer more than solutions. They offer a new way of seeing. One that centres relationships as much as results. A child sketching a wind turbine in a school notebook deserves more than a gesture. So does the grandmother who watches the patterns of heat shift year by year. So does the young woman building Arabic-language AI tools because she believes her voice belongs in the systems shaping tomorrow. This region has always known how to endure. But this is not only about survival. It is about imagination. The kind that led our ancestors to read wind, carve shade from stone and follow stars before maps had names. That instinct has not disappeared. It is still waiting. So what would you do with $232 billion? Build another skyline? Or rewrite the horizon itself? Rumaitha al Busaidi The writer is environmental strategist and advocate for sustainable development
Muscat Daily
3 days ago
- Muscat Daily
ICC issues arrest warrants for Taliban leaders
The Hague, Netherlands – The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for the Taliban's supreme leader and chief justice, accusing them of persecuting girls and women in Afghanistan. The ICC said there were grounds to believe that supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, chief justice of the Taliban, had committed the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds against girls, women and 'other persons non-conforming' with the Taliban's policy on gender, gender identity or expression, a statement from the UN court said. 'While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms,' the statement continued. The Taliban had 'severely deprived' girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion, ICC judges said. 'In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban's policy on gender.' Taliban's response The Hague-based court alleged the crimes took place from August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, and endured until at least January 20, 2025. The Taliban dismissed the warrants as 'nonsense' and that the ICC move 'won't affect the strong commitment and dedication to sharia (Islamic law)', spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. The purpose of the ICC The ICC was created to pass judgement on the world's worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court has no police force of its own and relies on member states to carry out its arrest warrants. In theory, this means anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained. In practice, this has not always been the case. Since returning to power four years ago, the Taliban have imposed measures that include the banning of women from public places and prohibiting girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade. Last week, Russia became the first country to formally recognise the Taliban regime. In recent years the ICC also has sought the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. DW
