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Condolences and contradictions — what André Lincoln's funeral exposed about the state
When retired top cop André Lincoln died recently, he faced a multimillion-rand state legal bill and accusations, which he denied, about a killed colleague. But President Cyril Ramaphosa approved Lincoln's funeral, meaning the state officially viewed him as honourable.
Decades of state-driven action saw André Lincoln evolve from an anti-apartheid intelligence agent, to an undercover policeman in democratic South Africa, to a criminal accused who insisted he was framed, and then to an exonerated man and a celebrated police officer.
But his state-dictated past, which stretched from apartheid into democracy, never let go.
It clung onto Lincoln up until his death on 30 May 2025 at the age of 63.
After Lincoln was convicted of criminal charges in 2002, which he insisted apartheid-era police officers concocted against him, he was kicked out the South African Police Service (SAPS).
He successfully challenged his convictions, was acquitted and in 2010 was reinstated as a policeman.
Lincoln versus the State
This saga, rooted in the 1990s and with aspects entrenched in apartheid, produced years of legal sparring between Lincoln and the state.
He said he was not compensated for his time out of the cop service – the years between his dismissal and readmission – even though he was exonerated.
And Daily Maverick previously reported that the State Attorney was pushing for him to pay what could amount to about R4.8-million for previous court processes in which Lincoln was involved against certain police bosses.
To put it succinctly, the State Attorney, via a cost order, wanted to recover from him what the government had spent on legal processes relating to him that had not panned out to his favour.
This put Lincoln at risk of losing his pension.
He tried to overturn the legal money demand, sometimes from a hospital bed he was confined to due to ill health – he had diabetes, went on to have a double leg amputation below the knees and a heart transplant.
The cost order issue is also one of the last that Lincoln flagged with this journalist before his death.
'It should never have happened'
In one of his previous communications to superiors to try to get the state to abandon the matter, Lincoln wrote: 'I have tirelessly dedicated my entire police career to fight crime, which I have done with distinction.'
He was celebrated as that which he described himself as, at his funeral on 14 June 2025, a part of which was an official state send-off.
This effectively means Lincoln only received the acknowledgement he sought from the state in death.
Allan Boesak spoke at the funeral, saying that, aside from health issues, Lincoln died of a broken heart.
Boesak also seemed to acknowledge Lincoln's legal and money drama, without going into nitty-gritty detail.
'It's not just about the money. That's still not resolved, those issues. It's about the other things that can be stolen from you. Your life and your work. Your honour, your dignity,' he said.
'And then comes the dragging of the feet so that even André lies here today, no longer alive, it's still not resolved. That is a shame.
'It should never have happened.'
The legend
Under apartheid, Lincoln was an ANC intelligence operative with uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) and fought the apartheid regime.
He became a policeman when the country progressed into a democracy around 1994.
Democratic South Africa's first president, Nelson Mandela, handpicked Lincoln to head an investigative unit that focused on suspicions of high-level organised crime suspects working with certain government figures and police officers.
Such suspicions still rattle this country, especially in the Western Cape, where Lincoln was based.
When Mandela appointed Lincoln to head the investigative unit, he had been an undercover police officer and said he created a 'legend' – a character – to conceal his identity.
According to Lincoln, his legend involved him having to blend into organised crime circles and interact with figures including gangsters, so he may have come across as one of those dubious characters.
His cover was blown when he was accused of various crimes – a saga he said fellow police officers, some apartheid-era policemen, deliberately orchestrated to derail investigations he was driving.
After Lincoln was acquitted and readmitted to the SAPS, he climbed the ranks.
He was appointed to head the Western Cape's Anti-Gang Unit in 2018 with the approval of President Cyril Ramaphosa – that same year a high court judgment found he had been maliciously prosecuted in the 1990s and was therefore entitled to R15-million in damages.
But the State Attorney managed to overturn that.
This is what saw the state pursuing money it said Lincoln owed it over the legal processes.
In 2021, Lincoln retired and the situation persisted.
Advocate Johan Nortjé, who represented Lincoln legally since the 1990s, previously said Lincoln had served as a policeman 'with dedication and distinction'. But when he retired he was 'left out in the cold as a disabled person with severe heart conditions at the age of 60, with only 11 years of his lifetime service being recognised by SAPS'.
And Lincoln was saddled with the massive cost order.
Such contradictions and pluralities in the way the state treated him were apparent at his 14 June funeral.
Kinnear's killing
Some of those relate to the 2020 murder of policeman Charl Kinnear in Cape Town.
Kinnear should have been under state protection at the time of his killing, but was not.
This sparked investigations into that security lapse and resulted in certain police officers, Lincoln included, being implicated.
In November 2024, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) declassified its findings on the matter.
This also meant that culpable homicide complaints filed by Kinnear's widow, Nicolette, could be solidified against nine police officers referenced in Ipid's findings – Lincoln included.
He previously denied putting Kinnear at risk, and in related court papers stated: 'I believe that I am being persecuted by the SAPS because I have made disclosures about the inaction of my seniors.'
All this ultimately meant that Lincoln died while facing the possibility of being criminally charged in connection with Kinnear's security, despite his denials, decades after he was convicted of crimes he said were maliciously crafted against him and of which he was acquitted.
From Lincoln's perspective, he may have viewed this as an element of the horrific part of his history effectively repeating itself.
Anti-Gang Unit reality
At his funeral, Western Cape police commissioner Thembisile Patekile had glowing words about Lincoln.
He said Lincoln had undergone various forms of training in the police and was 'a good leader with skills'.
Patekile also spoke about how Lincoln was appointed to head the Western Cape's Anti-Gang Unit, which had Ramaphosa's backing.
Daily Maverick has reported that the unit was launched towards the end of 2018 in an event that appeared to be something of a gimmick in the lead-up to a general election – it may have been used to try to gain votes for the ANC.
Lincoln himself, after his retirement, spoke out about how the unit was not what was presented to the public.
He had told Daily Maverick: 'I started realising… all those things were nothing more than an election ploy…
'The fact that we were promised a budget, that we never ever got. Even up to today, the Anti-Gang Unit is probably the most underresourced unit.
'As much as the public saw the emergence of this elite unit, there was nothing elite about it.'
Omissions and officiality
During Lincoln's funeral, none of that was referenced.
Issues relating to accusations Lincoln faced – and had denied – about Kinnear were not acknowledged either.
At one point, speaking at the funeral, Patakile explained how Lincoln had been promoted to the rank of major general.
But what was not referenced was that when Lincoln was reinstated into the SAPS in 2010, his lawyer believed he should have then already been promoted to the higher rank of lieutenant general.
At the funeral, Patekile described Lincoln as 'an ambassador for the police service'.
Part of the proceedings was a category two Special Provincial Official Funeral, in other words, a state one.
A Presidency document said this type of funeral was for ' distinguished persons specifically designated by the President of South Africa on request by the Premier of a province'.
Constant contradictions
During his tumultuous career in the SAPS, Lincoln had Mandela's backing when it came to the investigating unit that saw his career temporarily derailed.
He also had Ramaphosa's backing when he headed the Anti-Gang Unit – and Ramaphosa, based on the provincial state funeral for Lincoln, effectively viewed him as a 'distinguished' person.
Two presidents of democratic South Africa backed Lincoln, yet he still faced legal skirmishes with the state – and before that he fought the apartheid state.
This means Lincoln came up against each government – the one he fought against and the one he fought for.
These are the contradictions and incongruencies that shaped Lincoln's career, in democratic South Africa, and which trailed him to his death.
It was as if the state itself treated Lincoln as if he were the 'legend' he created decades ago, and at the same time, as the top police officer it subsequently celebrated him as.
At his funeral, Boesak described what Lincoln had faced in his life, saying: 'Danger from without and betrayal from within…
'That is what André had to live with. All of these constant contradictions. Up one day, down the other day. Swinging in the middle for most of the time.
'And yet trying to focus, trying to keep the course, because he believed in what he was doing.' DM
