The Democratic Alliance sees the arrests today of Adv Andrea Johnson, former Investigating Director of IDAC, and General Firoz Khan of SAPS, on charges of Defeating the Ends of Justice, as a devastating indictment on the state of law enforcement in South Africa.
These are profoundly serious allegations, compounded by the seniority of both individuals and the responsibility and public trust vested in them.
These arrests are a devastating indictment of the state of law enforcement in South Africa. They expose, in the starkest possible terms, the endemic and systemic corruption that has infected the NPA and SAPS for many years now. More damning still is the fact that these developments fatally undermine the credibility, integrity and legitimacy of IDAC. An anti-corruption institution tainted by such serious allegations cannot credibly command public confidence nor fulfil its mandate with any measure of credibility. IDAC is beyond rehabilitation, and must be disbanded. It is a microcosm of a corrupt NPA, and cannot itself be anything but corrupt.
South Africa urgently requires a new, genuinely independent anti-corruption institution, established entirely outside the authority and control of the NPA, insulated from political interference and institutional capture, and endowed with the investigative and prosecutorial powers necessary to confront corruption wherever it exists, regardless of rank, office or political affiliation.
Anything less is an exercise in window dressing. South Africa cannot continue to entrust the fight against corruption to institutions that have themselves become part of the problem. The fight against corruption cannot be led by compromised institutions. The time for cosmetic reform is long over.