CAPE TOWN, Western Cape — The ANC has formally criticized suspended National Police Commissioner General Fanie Masemola over his agreement to a SAPS Crime Intelligence appointments freeze, arguing that he failed to uphold his constitutional duties. The controversy emerged during ongoing deliberations by a parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating allegations of criminality within the South African Police Service (SAPS).
At the center of the dispute is a directive issued by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, who is currently on special leave, instructing a moratorium on appointments within the Crime Intelligence division. According to the ANC’s submissions to the committee, Masemola should have challenged the instruction rather than implementing it, as doing so compromised his constitutional obligations.
The political-administrative interface within the SAPS has become a focal point of the committee’s hearings. The Democratic Alliance (DA) came to Masemola’s defense, arguing that the national commissioner was operating within a hostile strategic environment. DA MP Ian Cameron highlighted that a culture of political interference has been cultivated within the SAPS over the past decade, creating conditions that public servants view as career-limiting.
Cameron referenced Masemola’s own testimony, noting that the general correctly identified how opposition to decisions by political office-bearers could prematurely end a commissioner’s tenure. “An environment was created over a space of 10 even longer years that ministers… made decisions that made it extremely difficult for operational senior police members to do their jobs properly,” Cameron stated, adding that Masemola was entirely correct in assessing that pushing back against the minister would likely limit his time as national commissioner.
Despite acknowledging the difficult position Masemola found himself in, the ANC maintained that administrative frameworks must be respected. ANC MP Khusela Diko emphasized that the framework for the professionalization of the public service has long identified and attempted to manage these exact political-administrative friction points.
Diko pointed out that existing protocols provide a clear mechanism for such disputes: if an accounting officer believes an instruction from an executive authority is unlawful, they have the power to request that the directive be put in writing. “He ought to have known and he should know and I’m quite certain that he is aware that that power resides within him,” Diko asserted, reinforcing the party’s stance that while they are sympathetic to his position, “rules are rules.”
In a secondary but highly contentious development during the hearings, the ANC also accused DA MP Diane Kohler-Barnard of improperly handling classified or intelligence-related information. The party argued that her actions warranted a formal investigation and called for her to be reported to the relevant parliamentary ethics structures.
The DA fiercely defended Kohler-Barnard, insisting that the information she shared was already in the public domain and had been widely circulated in the media, which was her source for the material. However, the EFF and the PA aligned with the ANC on this specific issue. Both parties argued that regardless of whether Kohler-Barnard was the original source of the leak, her status as a senior parliamentarian meant she should not have handled the classified information in the manner she did.
The ad hoc committee is now racing against the clock to finalize its findings. With a newly extended deadline of October 30 to complete deliberations on its draft report regarding criminality within the SAPS, the committee is scheduled to convene again on Friday to continue its critical oversight work.
