SA Politics Thread Part 12

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I used Google Translate to translate Mkhwanazi into Afrikaans, it came back with de Ruyter. His ramblings are all making sense now.
 
Oldfut said:
Mkhwanazi going for the press has caused a flutter at N24. Paywalled but not much substance to the editorial, just the usual squealing when poked; like a piglet.

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That piece is actually spot on. There should be consequence management, but not the dictator kind that he wants.

Up till now all he's done is yap without any actual evidence. He gave more evidence at his initial press conference than he's done on these official platforms...

KwaZulu-Natal police boss Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi must decide if he wants to be a corruption buster or a tin-pot dictator in police uniform.

In an extraordinary first for democratic South Africa, Mkhwanazi asked Parliament to request the surveillance of journalists by the country’s security sector and called for journalists who get it wrong to be jailed.

These are major shots fired in a larger battle for media freedom by someone who portrays himself as a corruption fighter.

What is at risk is the future of democracy in South Africa.

In his evidence before Parliament’s ad hoc committee into his headline-grabbing allegations of police corruption, Mkhwanazi launched a broadside against journalists, calling for state security to run a counter-intelligence investigation against SA media – specifically highlighting News24, the Sunday Times and City Press.

On Wednesday, he doubled down, saying he has a list of problematic journalists’ names, and named one at City Press who he claimed was on the payroll of Crime Intelligence (CI), without providing evidence.

He said there should be heavy penalties against journalists, because there were some “bad ones”.

The crime? Journalists daring to report on the malfeasance in CI despite Mkhwanazi fully acknowledging those problems. Mkhwanazi believes the inner workings of CI should be kept secret for the sake of our country, and these problems need to be dealt with behind closed doors, or the country will “burn”.

He also claimed, without proof, that certain journalists were working with CI. If he has evidence of journalists being on their payroll, he should expose them with that very evidence. It will serve the cause of journalism to out captured reporters.

But that is not what he has done. Instead, he has attempted to unleash chaos by throwing out allegations with nothing to back them up and has threatened the freedom of the media, which is protected by our Constitution. This is the sinister stuff of tin-pot dictators. Any attempt to follow through with a counter-intelligence probe of journalists heralds the end of freedom and the beginning of democratic South Africa’s metamorphosis into a police state.

It begs the question – who is next? Civil society? The judiciary?

Corruption has to be uncovered, not hidden under the pretense of security. This is why we have journalists who work in the public interest to expose criminals – especially those who are tasked with protecting this republic across all functions of the state.

CI and its secret slush fund – meant to fund covert operations necessary for the country’s security – are not above scrutiny. There needs to be answers and accountability for how that money is spent, especially with the checkered past of that fund.
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