Nearly six months of lost leadership at South Africa’s police service came with a price tag still being counted, after a collapsed prosecution left the National Commissioner out of office and the state’s case against its own accounting officer in tatters. General Fannie Masemola returned to his desk on October 19, when President Cyril Ramaphosa lifted the precautionary suspension imposed almost six months earlier. The criminal charges have been withdrawn, and the questions now turning on the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are as much about institutional cost as legal merit.
The charges stemmed from public money. As head of SAPS, Masemola serves as its accounting officer, responsible for how the service spends state funds. The NPA’s Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) alleged that he failed to act promptly on warnings about irregularities in the police’s Medicare24 health services contract, a deal entangled with businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, and instead allowed payments to continue. Masemola was never accused of or charged with corruption. The four counts related solely to alleged breaches of the Public Finance Management Act. Matlala, the Medicare24 directors, and several police officials face separate fraud and corruption charges over the allegedly irregular awarding of the tender, and that case continues.
The prosecution unravelled on September 15, when the NPA withdrew its charges after concluding it had no viable case. NPA head Andy Mothibi ordered the withdrawal after considering the investigation material, a Case Assessment Panel report, and an independent senior counsel’s report, finding “no reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution.” The Pretoria Magistrate’s Court formalised the decision a week later. That outcome sits awkwardly with the NPA’s own policy, which requires prosecutors to establish a reasonable prospect of securing a conviction before proceeding at all.
Piers Pigou, policing analyst and executive director of Intelwatch, is blunt about the economics of the failed case. “Those charges (against Masemola) were, I think, you know, manifestly spurious,” he said. Doubts surfaced soon after Masemola’s first court appearance on April 21. At the Madlanga Commission in July, commissioners questioned whether IDAC’s mandate permitted standalone Public Finance Management Act charges against an official not accused of corruption, and why he had been joined to defendants facing fraud and corruption counts. Former IDAC head Andrea Johnson accepted that the commission should have dealt with his case separately. The commission itself made no finding on whether Masemola breached the Act.
What prompted the review, and why the prosecution was pursued in the first place, remains unknown. The NPA has not spoken publicly on either question and, at the time of publication, had not responded to explain.co.za’s request for comment. When withdrawing the charges, Mothibi said the matter would be referred to IDAC’s oversight judge to examine how evidence was assessed, how the law was applied in deciding to prosecute, and whether there was misconduct. Pigou cautions against leaping to conclusions: the NPA can and should reconsider cases as circumstances change, so the reversal is neither unprecedented nor necessarily sinister.
Meanwhile, the withdrawal settles less than it might appear to. It does not resolve the legality of the Medicare24 contract, and it does not dispose of the fraud and corruption case against Matlala and his co-defendants. Nor does it amount to a finding on Masemola’s conduct. “It raises questions about his management competence. I think that’s fair enough,” Pigou said. He noted that Masemola inherited a compromised SAPS leadership structure that limited his room to act, but argued the commissioner still carried a duty to ensure the contract was properly managed.
Back at work, Masemola faces a demanding agenda. Willem Els of the Institute for Security Studies welcomed the return: “It’s good for him to be back because we need continuity,” he told explain.co.za, saying the commissioner’s presence brings structure after the factional infighting that has long dogged the institution. Els recommended transparent performance management, suggesting Masemola “can start with the performance clauses in all these senior commissioners’ contracts”, replace those who fail to perform, and extend accountability down to station commissioners. “That is where things go right or wrong,” he said. Pigou urged the commissioner to build competent operational teams and to put arrangements in place that survive the next leadership change: “Because what you don’t want is the next police chief to come in and just scrap all the initiatives that he’s been doing.”
Restoring public confidence, analysts warn, will take sustained effort. Mark Shaw, executive director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, said scepticism of the police now runs very deep: “It’s going to take more than a few press statements and removal of senior officers.” For Pigou, “an essential part of that is to re-establish the relationship between communities and police,” with faster responses and functioning local stations giving residents a reason to trust the institution.
By the time of publication, SAPS, like the NPA, had not responded to queries from explain.co.za. Whether the oversight judge’s review will explain why public funds and six months of leadership were spent on a case with no reasonable prospects of conviction remains the open question.