A Twitter Thread by Ian Cameron

1/25 People have asked why I say SA is already a mafia-state, here is a thread to try and summarise it from a police perspective over the last 23 years. Remember this didn't happen by accident. This was orchestrated by the ANC since Thabo Mbeki was president. Here's the summary:

2/25 Jackie Selebi was SAPS national commissioner in 2000-2008 and was later convicted & sentenced to 15 yrs in prison in 2010. He was found guilty of taking bribes from drug traffickers and defeating the ends of justice. He also disbanded many specialised police units.

3/25 Selebi was appointed by the then president Thabo Mbeki as the first ANC cadre with ZERO police knowledge/ experience and still became a police commissioner. He also promised a replacement for disbanded commando's but of course nothing was delivered. May he not rest in peace.

4/25 Bheki Cele, the now police minister, was appointed after Selebi in 2009. Again, ZERO police experience. Cele was suspended as national commissioner in 2011 and subsequently fired in 2012 by former president Jacob Zuma due to allegations of misconduct and maladministration.

5/25 Bheki Cele was accused of corruption related to the procurement of police buildings. Recommendations for his sacking followed an investigation by the then Public Protector, Adv Thuli Madonsela. Imagine how bad you are if Jacob Zuma fires you?!

6/25 Nhlanhla Lucky Mkwanazi was appointed as acting national commissioner in 2011 after Cele was sacked and removed shortly after as he notified parliament that SAPS was receiving political instructions about who to investigate etc.

7/25 Riah Phiyega (2012-2015): Suspended as national commissioner in '15 following the Marikana massacre, where 34 miners were killed during a strike. She was accused of failing to take appropriate action to prevent the violence and of misleading the public on what happened.

8/25 Phiyega also awarded herself several prestigious medals that she certainly didn't serve for or deserve. They were: -SAPS Gold Medal for Outstanding Service (SOEG) -SAPS Ten Year Commemoration Medal -SAPS World Cup 2010 Support Award -SAPS Amalgamation Medal

9/25 Reminder that Phiyega had ZERO police experience, knowledge or qualifications. She awarded herself medals. She didn't even serve during FIFA world cup, only 'served' for about 3 years and had nothing to do with amalgamation. Her service was certainly not outstanding either!

10/25 Khomotso Phahlane (2015-2017): Appointed as acting national police commissioner in 2015 and later as permanent commissioner in 2017. He was suspended in 2017 and faced allegations of corruption, including money laundering and fraud.

11/25 Lieutenant-General Lesetja Mothiba (2017-2018): Appointed as acting national police commissioner in 2017 and later as permanent commissioner in 2018. He resigned in 2018 citing personal reasons and a lack of support from the police ministry. In my opinion an honourable man.

12/25 General Khehla Sitole (2018-2022): Appointed as national police commissioner in 2018. Fired for obstructing IPID investigations into corrupt procurement deals. He was utterly useless during July 2021 riots too. We can make a long list on him alone.

13/25 The current national commissioner is Fannie Masemola and has already been accused of corruption. He also did nothing about rampant corruption and involvement by senior ANC ministers in Eskom as reported directly to him by Andre De Ruyter.

14/25 Some other facts regarding police and crime in the mafia-state, South Africa: South Africa is ranked 19th out of 193 UN member states and 5th out of 54 African countries on the Global Organized Crime Index 2021.

15/25 A Western Cape High Court judgement in October 2022 found that the South African Police Service (SAPS) was compromised by criminals at the 'highest levels'.

16/25 I agree with this, in the Western Cape a good example is how Bheki Cele has tried to classify the Kinnear report. The report regarding Charl Kinnear's assassination would expose senior cops and politicians involvement in organised crime. May Cele be among those?

17/25 South Africa has extreme rates of violent crime, with 3.5 people murdered every hour, 84 per day (only 14.5% of murders solved). Over 130 rape cases are reported per day, 6 per hour, 1 every 10 minutes (less than 10% are reported).

18/25 There have been concerns about the working conditions in the SAPS, with some buildings having their electricity disconnected and others in a state of neglect.

19/25 I quote: ‘The electricity in some of the buildings has been disconnected. Others are in a state of advanced neglect.’ - Portfolio Committee in Parliament, 18 May 2022

20/25 SAPS lost over 26,000 official firearms from 2005-2017, with 10 million rounds of ammunition lost in 2019, and 566 official firearms lost between April 2020 and March 2021.

21/25 The SAPS has a shortage of around 14,000 new recruits, and there have been reports of corruption in the recruitment process. Over 60,000 SAPS reservists have been lost over the last decade.

22/25 Since 2016, 96,785 Schedule 8 (rapists and murderers) offenders have been released on parole without submitting a DNA sample. The NFDD was created in 2015, and the Amendment Act and CO Bill were introduced in 2017, but only finalized in 2023.

23/25 Due to non-payment by the SAPS, the Property Control and Exhibit Management System (PCEM) was switched off by Forensic Data Analysis (FDA) - the system supplier. 8 million pieces of evidence were 'lost.' Another Cele/ Sithole blunder.

24/25 To summarise I want to quote the Strategic Organised Crime Assessment (September 2022 p 31) of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC): "SAPS remains an institution without strategic direction when it comes to organized crime.... (continues)

25/25 .... It is still committed to a high visibility, low-impact approach that centers on taking down ‘high-flyers’ and making big seizures and large numbers of low-level arrests." South Africa is already a mafia-state.