New Saps crime intelligence head will be ‘a puppet for a larger corrupt government’

In a bid to rejuvenate the embattled South African crime intelligence (CI) unit, following a musical chairs scenario of the unit’s heads since 2012, police commissioner General Fannie Masemola announced a critical appointment.

Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo was appointed as the new head of CI, a division of the South African Police Service (Saps) which was without a permanent boss for about two years.

Prior to this, the unit was unstable and had several acting bosses, including Major-General King Bhoyi Ngcobo, Major-General Philani Lushaba, Lieutenant General Peter Jacobs and Lieutenant-General Yolisa Mokgabudi.

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Mokgabudi had been appointed acting Crime Intelligence boss. However, she resigned in September 2021, after just seven months in the hot seat.

Introducing Khumalo during the press briefing, Masemola said Khumalo joined the Saps as a student constable in 1991, and for 26 years was involved in operational response services in the CI environment.

Between 2006 and 2018 Khumalo served as a component head for national operational coordination, where he was responsible for the integrated deployment of resources to crime hotspot areas throughout the country, according to Masemola.

But Action Society’s Ian Cameron was wary of the new appointment, expressing a lack of confidence, citing widespread corruption in government.

“It makes no logical sense; I do not have any faith with the new appointment. Not to say general Khumalo is a bad person, but I believe he is a puppet for a larger corrupt government,” said Cameron.

Cameron said despite Khumalo being part of those who have done operational CI work in KZN, the province has not got any better in terms of organised crime statistics.

“KZN organised crime statistics have not declined over the last four years, everything has increased. Places like Durban, Inanda and Phoenix have just got far worse than they were years ago,” he said.

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“It doesn’t seem like he has a strong leadership track record and to take on something like CI in a country that ranks in the top 20 of biggest organised crime countries in the world, is not an easy task,” Cameron said.

Following the July riots of 2021, crime intelligence was strongly criticised by the expert panel appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa for failing to provide sufficient warning of the impending attacks.

Cameron said it should also be noted that Masemola served under the last three or four police commissioners, who have been found to be corrupt or involved in some kind of corruption, which would make him no different from them.

Masemola said the perception that the CI division was corrupt and failing to do proper intelligence work was wrong.

He was responding to questions that the division has been found wanting many times, most noticeably in July 2021, when over 300 people had died and shops looted in KZN and Johannesburg.

“We should not, as Saps and the public, have the perception that crime intelligence is corrupt. There are good men and women in crime intelligence. It’s only a few that are being dealt with,” said Masemola.

CI has been seen as rotten since the days of former head Richard Mdluli, who is still on court rap on allegations that he looted the secret service account to the tune of millions of rands.

In August, the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit froze R13 million worth of assets belonging to Mdluli and his two co-accused.

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