Chief justice welcomes appointment of deputy chief justice Dunstan Mlambo
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the appointment on Thursday.
The appointment follows the Judicial Service Commission's (JSC's) resolution on July 3 to advise the president that Mlambo was suitable for appointment as the deputy chief justice. The JSC took this decision after also interviewing Free State judge president Cagney Musi and Northern Cape judge president Pule Tlaletsi.
'Justice Mlambo brings to this role a wealth of experience, steadfast leadership, and an unwavering dedication to constitutional values,' Maya said.
She said his distinguished service as judge president of the Gauteng division of the high court and in previous positions demonstrated his legal excellence, administrative skill and commitment to justice.
Maya said the judiciary looked forward to working with him in his new role in advancing the rule of law, safeguarding judicial independence and ensuring access to justice for all South Africans.
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The Citizen
37 minutes ago
- The Citizen
SA's police serve ANC insiders, not the people: Here's how it happened
The late national police commissioner Jackie Selebi was an ANC insider. After South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, there was significant optimism about police reform in the country. Impressive steps were taken to bring the South African Police Service (Saps) under civilian control and to create a service responsive to calls for assistance from the public. During the apartheid period, South Africa's police worked to preserve the political order and pursue political opponents. It did not focus on dealing with crime. This is why the achievements of the 1990s are so important. For the first time, black South Africans could call upon officers to respond to personal emergencies. This period also saw a drop in crime levels. However, this promising early transformation was interrupted. The appointment of Jackie Selebi as national police commissioner in 2000 heralded a new era. Selebi was an African National Congress (ANC) insider. The ANC originated as a liberation movement and has governed the country since 1994. Selebi had served as the head of the ANC's Youth League in the 1980s, when it was banned. In 1987 he was appointed to the organisation's national executive committee, its highest decision-making organ. His appointment as police commissioner was the start of significant change in the purpose of policing. It marked the end of the focus on civilian control of the police force and prosecuting authorities. As an ANC insider, Selebi led efforts to establish party control over the police. ALSO READ: Madlanga inquiry: Mkhwanazi first to be consulted This politicisation gained momentum over the next two decades. In the early years it was exemplified by the suspension of the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Advocate Vusi Pikoli, by then president Thabo Mbeki, amid corruption allegations against Selebi himself. Other telling developments ensued. The Scorpions were disbanded in 2009 by acting president Kgalema Motlanthe. The unit's job was to pursue high-profile cases against senior ANC politicians (among others). The police became increasingly entangled in the ANC's internal political conflicts. At the same time the office of the national police commissioner experienced high turnover due to intense political manoeuvring. Between 2009 and 2022, there were seven national commissioners. Recent developments have once again brought the intermingling of police work and power battles in the ANC to the fore. In early July 2025, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the commissioner of police in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, made some startling claims. He called a press conference and, wearing camouflage uniform, he implicated the minister of police, Senzo Mchunu, together with the deputy national commissioner for crime detection, in a scheme to close down investigations into political assassinations in the province. President Cyril Ramaphosa rushed back from a meeting of the Brics countries in Brazil to attend to the matter. He announced that the police minister had been placed on leave with immediate effect. He also announced a judicial inquiry into the allegations. I have conducted research into South Africa's security apparatus over the last decade. Based on this work, and new research forthcoming in the Journal of Southern African Studies done with Jelena Vidojevic, co-founder of the New South Institute, it is clear that elite contestation in the ANC is intensifying. In other words, the ability of internal party structures to manage gatekeeping is declining. Many of the people involved are indifferent or even hostile to South Africa's democratic and constitutional order. As the ability of some political elites to access state resources through the party declines, some are linked with organised criminal networks. Organised crime has been on the edges of South African politics. It now risks taking a more central role. In this environment, the police service will often be the thin (blue) line between multiparty contestation according to constitutional rules and the criminalisation of politics in South Africa. The shift Large organisational changes within the police vividly illustrate this shift away from its core function. The Visible Policing programme was meant to meant to deter crime through patrols, checkpoints and roadblocks. But, instead, there was a steady decline in resource allocation. Employee numbers dropped between 2015 and 2021. Detective services and crime intelligence also experienced such declines. Conversely, employee numbers in the Protection and Security Services programme, responsible for providing bodyguards to politicians, increased sharply between 2014 and 2016. Evidence heard by the commission of inquiry into state capture suggested that some officers and budgets in the service were even used to supply President Jacob Zuma and other politicians with what amounted to a private militia. READ MORE: Police investigate allegations of Basotho military-style training camps in South Africa This reorientation of resources coincided with a rise in crime across the country, a decline in arrests by 24.5%, and a drop in the police's efficacy in solving crimes. Furthermore, a politicised police leadership effectively stopped policing various categories of crime. This was particularly true of offences like fraud, corruption, and certain types of theft, and particularly when politically connected persons were involved. The state capture commission heard extensive evidence about the failure of the police to pursue politically sensitive investigations. 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Moreover, South Africans have already witnessed a long and expensive judicial inquiry into state capture. And despite extensive evidence of police failure to pursue politically sensitive investigations, nothing concrete has come of it. READ MORE: Ramaphosa says Madlanga commission mustn't take more than one year How likely is it that this new initiative will be any different, especially if those investigating it and presiding over key institutions are themselves ANC insiders? To depoliticise the police service and redirect its attention and activities towards crime and emergencies, a crucial first step is to reconsider the appointment processes for the national police commissioner and other top managers. Under the current system the president has sole discretion. This bakes party-political considerations into the decision-making process. Without structural changes, genuine democratic policing will remain an elusive ideal. In 2024/25 the murder rate in South Africa stood at 42 per 100,000, among the highest in the world and close to levels not seen since the early 2000s. At the very least, the minister of police must not be an ANC insider. Democratic renewal in South Africa requires bringing the police firmly under parliamentary control. This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.
IOL News
3 hours ago
- IOL News
Liberators in Dire Need of Political, Moral Cleansing
(From left) Swapo president Nutembo Nandi-Ndaitwah, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and former Frelimo president Joaquim Chissano at a working dinner held at Mahlamba Ndlopfu, Pretoria on July 26, 2025. The ANC hosted a Liberation Movements Summit in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng on July 25-27, 2025. Image: GCIS Zamikhaya Maseti The ruling African National Congress convened a landmark Liberation Movements Summit from 25 to 27 July 2025, gathering six Southern African liberation parties including MPLA (Angola), SWAPO (Namibia), FRELIMO (Mozambique), ZANU PF (Zimbabwe), and CCM (Tanzania) to deliberate on the theme: 'Defending the Liberation Gains, Advancing Integrated SocioEconomic Development, Strengthening Solidarity for a Better Africa.' Conspicuously absent, however, was Zambia's United National Independence Party (UNIP), the liberation movement led by the late President Kenneth Kaunda. This party offered refuge to the exiled leadership of the African National Congress and embraced thousands of young South Africans who crossed borders to join the national liberation struggle against apartheid. The ANC, as a liberation movement, had its headquarters in Lusaka under the protection of UNIP, and the Zambian people sustained its operational lifeline. The organisers of the summit have not explained this omission, and it stands as a glaring historical oversight in any attempt to reconstruct the liberation narrative of Southern Africa. Any honest retelling of Southern Africa's liberation history is incomplete without recognising Zambia's indispensable role, under the leadership of the United National Independence Party (UNIP) and President Kenneth Kaunda. While not always armed with material abundance, Zambia carried the weight of regional liberation with unmatched moral clarity and unwavering solidarity. Lusaka was not just a geographical refuge for exiles; it was the beating heart of a pan-African revolutionary conscience, hosting the ANC's headquarters, training camps, political schools, and underground logistics. The Zambian people paid a heavy price, including economic sabotage, border raids by the apartheid regime, and relentless pressure from the West. Yet Kaunda's government never wavered. It chose principle over profit, and African unity over diplomatic convenience. That such a pivotal liberation movement was absent from this summit should not be taken lightly; it reflects a growing trend of selective memory that must be confronted if we are to truly reclaim and revitalise the liberation legacy. The summit made several significant resolutions. It reaffirmed support for the liberation of Western Sahara, condemned all forms of foreign domination and neocolonial interference, and called for deeper ideological and practical cooperation between liberation movements. The parties committed to revitalising South–South solidarity, advancing youth mobilisation and political education, and accelerating regional economic integration through shared development frameworks. In addition, the summit called for party-to-party diplomacy beyond state platforms, recognising the strategic value of liberation movements coordinating across borders to influence global governance, trade, and peace agendas. These resolutions, if translated into action, could mark a turning point, shifting these movements from commemorators of the past to architects of the African future. This was not a nostalgic gathering of revolutionaries trading memories over aged slogans. It was a solemn reaffirmation of purpose, a strategic recalibration of the post-colonial project amidst a volatile global order. What emerged was clear: the legacy of liberation is not a finished chapter; it is an unfinished struggle, and those who led us into freedom must now lead us into transformation. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading The liberation movements in the Southern African region have not been able to dogwatch one another, to speak frankly, honestly, and without diplomatic pretence. At no point did SWAPO, FRELIMO, CCM, or MPLA rise with principled courage to say, for instance, to President Robert Mugabe, how you are governing Zimbabwe is unjust and unsustainable. The ANC, however, attempted what it called quiet diplomacy in Zimbabwe, urging the Zimbabwean leadership and people to resolve their problems internally and to avoid relying on externally imposed solutions. Unfortunately, that quiet diplomacy did not yield the desired results. The suppression of opposition parties and the stifling of democratic space persisted. This absence of honest, fraternal correction among liberation movements has weakened the moral centre of the liberation tradition itself. One hopes that this revived Party-to-Party diplomacy will correct that historical failure. It must not be reduced to celebratory declarations and performative solidarity. It must have political dog watching as a central tenet, a principled, fraternal mechanism through which liberation movements hold one another to the revolutionary values they once embodied: honesty, people-centred governance, democratic integrity, and moral courage. Not loyalty to incumbency, but loyalty to the people. The liberation movements must be brave enough to confront the objective reality of the evaporation of the liberation heritage. The fact of the matter is that across the African continent, the very parties that ushered in political freedom, that dismantled colonial rule, and held the dreams of the masses, are no longer the governing parties. In Ghana, the Convention People's Party (CPP) of Kwame Nkrumah, the first to proclaim African independence, has faded into political obscurity. In Zambia, UNIP, once the bastion of Southern African solidarity under Kenneth Kaunda, has been swept aside. In Kenya, KANU (Kenya African National Union), the liberation party of Jomo Kenyatta, has long ceded power. Here at home, the ANC of Nelson Mandela, once the symbol of global moral authority, has been partially dislodged from power. It now governs in coalition with its ideological and historical adversaries, a profound moment that should signal not a tactical adjustment, but a generational reckoning. The liberation movement, as we know it, stands at a precipice. The question these Parties must collectively ask is not cosmetic or electoral, it is existential: Why has this occurred? Why have the liberation movements, once cherished as the custodians of the people's hopes, been relegated to electoral decline, coalition compromise, and in some cases, outright irrelevance? And more importantly, what should be their collective response to this objective reality of downward swings, fractured mandates, and the political displacement of liberation itself? This is no longer a theoretical concern. It is an urgent summons for introspection, ideological recalibration, and coordinated strategic renewal across the continent.
The South African
12 hours ago
- The South African
'Good life': Afrikaner 'refugee' shares update after US move
Errol Langton – an Afrikaner 'refugee' now living in the US – has shared an update about his life abroad. Almost three months ago, Langton was one of 49 white South Africans who applied for the refugee resettlement programme. In February, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order, granting refuge to Afrikaners or 'minorities', over his claims of 'racial discrimination' in South Africa. A second group of South Africans have since departed, with many more expected to follow. Speaking to US intel expert Chris Wyatt, 'Afrikaner refugee' Errol Langton shared an update about his life in his adoptive country. The IT businessman, who also owned a 'leafy green' farm, now lives in Birmingham, Alabama. In a clip posted on social media, Langton detailed the joys and challenges of the resettlement programme. Although his family members did not have social security numbers or a driver's license, they were covered by Medicaid for the first year of their stay. He also revealed how they had been temporarily provided financial assistance. Langton praised the 'efficient' government systems, particularly the healthcare. Despite the backlash of being labelled an 'Afrikaner refugee,' Langton revealed he had encountered helpful and friendly Americans. He said, 'People are very accommodating. People here want to help, they see the need, and they don't treat you like a leper. 'The kids have a good life here'. Of his frustrations, he said: 'The reality is that we're resettling our entire lives, and that's a huge challenge. There are some frustrations, but I downplay them, because I look at the positive'. During the clip, Errol Langton also addressed the backlash he's received after portraying himself as an 'Afrikaner refugee'. He said: 'I've been roasted in South Africa. People have said I'm not an Afrikaner, I'm not a farmer. It's not the case at all. The rhetoric and hate from that side is insane. Speaking to the New York Times, Langton claimed that he was a 'leafy greens' farmer from KwaZulu-Natal. However, his LinkedIn account listed his experience in the IT sector, where he owned a large business. Errol Langton is an Afrikaner 'refugee' who claims he was persecuted in South Africa. Images via Facebook: Errol Langton Many South Africans – including his stepdaughter – questioned his claims of being a 'farmer' and even an 'Afrikaner'. Some also called him 'opportunistic' for wanting to start again in another country, and in particular, a state – Alabama – where his own relatives immigrated to years ago. Speaking to eNCA's Annika Larson in June, Errol Langton rubbished reports that the group of 'refugees' consisted of white South African farmers. He said: 'That was never the mandate. It was minorities that were suffering persecution'. Of his own identity, he said: 'Yes, I'm an Afrikaner, yes, I'm a farmer. But by everybody else's decision? Maybe not so much'. Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
