MAKHUDU SEFARA | Ramaphosa freezes in the Phala Phala minefield, and Masemola keeps his job

The decision to bring charges against national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola has effectively emasculated him at a time the police require a steady hand at the helm.

The police environment is now, more than ever, dangerously suffused with criminal cops trying to survive. Investigations by the Madlanga commission and the parliamentary ad hoc committee have exposed a level of criminality by officers we thought only possible in movies and novels.

A national day of prayer should be declared for the investigators looking into the cases of Masemola and other senior officers, for, in truth, they can’t afford to put a foot wrong. That Masemola is still at work beggars belief. In a normal society, President Cyril Ramaphosa should have suspended him even before the rest of society even heard of the summons against the country’s top cop.

It would be disingenuous for anyone to claim that Ramaphosa discovered along with the rest of us that Masemola has a date with the prosecutors in a scheme benefiting the notorious Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala. Understanding the gravity of the issues, as soon as he learnt of the summons Ramaphosa should have done right by all of us and told the commissioner to stay at home.

The Phala Phala burglary in February 2020 has doused Ramaphosa’s fire. It has made him indebted to the many people who helped clean up the mess. He is now a kept president

Why has he failed to do so? What are the minefields he needs to traverse? The truth, often, is a negotiation between facts, actions and omissions. What we know is that the Phala Phala burglary in February 2020 has doused Ramaphosa’s fire. It has made him indebted to the many people who helped clean up the mess. He is now a kept president. This explains why he avoids engagements but seeks unidirectional messaging. The so-called family meetings. This is why he is more at home at international forums than, well, at home.

When the Phala Phala saga unfolded in the public eye, the police belatedly sprang into action, trying to trace the Namibians who fled with the nearly $600,000 in cash from Ramaphosa’s infamous couch. So, who would have all the information about the trip in a police helicopter for the two senior figures who flew to Namibia as part of their clean-up efforts? Masemola. If anyone was in a position to find out what is in that classified Independent Police Investigative Directorate report on Phala Phala, who would it be? Masemola.

In short, he knows where the bodies are buried. So Masemola cannot be thrown out of the police like a common criminal by a president trying to look like he is feverishly fighting crime. It makes sense for Ramaphosa to drag his feet — he wants Masemola to appreciate the upheaval as South Africans demand his suspension. The message to the general is that it’s not the president who wants his head; but unfortunately he is taking flak, and his hands are tied.

This is the problem with compromised leadership. Even when Ramaphosa knows he must act against Masemola, he must first think about how not to antagonise him. He must think about how Masemola could, like former spy boss Arthur Fraser, try to bring him down.

Think, too, of the circumstances behind the suspension of the inspector-general of intelligence, Imtiaz Fazel, in October last year. He had recommended that Masemola and others be prosecuted in relation to property purchases using crime intelligence funds. He ended up being targeted himself for leaking information. It may be true Fazel deserved censure, but the timing — after recommending action against Masemola and other top cops — raises eyebrows. This, too, was an opportunity for Ramaphosa to “apply his mind” about what would happen if Masemola was arrested.

We continue to hear Ramaphosa ‘is applying his mind’, as if there were something highly complex about a top cop getting caught with his fingers in the cookie jar

Recently Fazel asked Ramaphosa to allow him to testify at the parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating police corruption, including the property deals. Ramaphosa sought legal advice, and the parliamentary committee ran out of time to hear oral evidence. The president may well have had genuine reasons for seeking legal advice, but suspicions could arise that he was kicking for touch to protect Masemola, who, again, knows where the bodies are buried. And if Fazel had something to hide, why would he volunteer to go to an open parliamentary committee where everyone is getting grilled?

Meanwhile, chaos reigns in the police because of Ramaphosa’s inaction. Imagine a meeting of the top brass at which the arrest of Matlala’s enablers in the force is discussed and the question on the table is: who will suspend them? Ordinarily, Masemola would initiate the process. But now he is their co-accused. How could he even contemplate it without worrying about his own suspension? Does he recuse himself from such a meeting of the police? If he does, why not recuse himself from everything else? It’s a royal mess.

But we continue to hear Ramaphosa “is applying his mind”, as if there were something highly complex about a top cop getting caught with his fingers in the cookie jar. To be clear, the president has had plenty of opportunities to consider the likely repercussions of arresting Masemola. Apart from the property purchase scandal flagged by Fazel, there have been many reports, for example, about impending arrests related to a cash-stuffed Louis Vuitton bag.

Until Ramaphosa acts, our collective security as a country is compromised. Yes, the ordinary officers will be at their posts opening cases and taking suspects to courts. What is missing is strategic direction in the context of a suspended police minister, a suspended deputy commissioner — Shadrack Sibiya — and the crippling cloud hanging over the heads of Masemola and many other senior officers who have been exposed at the Madlanga commission.

We should not have to tell the president to move with speed about something so obviously important. Trite though this is, we must be sad it’s taking him this long because he is afraid of stepping on landmines.