Former cabinet minister Sydney Mufamadi, who was involved in building South Africa’s police service as the country switched from apartheid to democracy, says developing a cop component that serves the country means analysing issues of warped leadership and steering away from politics.
“Building a police service which must serve the country… can’t be a matter of political football that is played in the national and provincial legislatures,” Mufamadi said on Wednesday.
He added that if individuals appointed via processes, including the involvement of Parliament, later did not inspire confidence via their work, “it must tell us there is something seriously wrong with issues of leadership.”
Mindsets, he said, needed to shift and leaders needed not only technical skills, but also vision.
Mufamadi was speaking at a webinar, titled Leadership Crisis in the SA Police Service, hosted by the Hanns Seidel Foundation (a non-profit organisation headquartered in Germany) and the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office.
He was not speaking as a representative of government.
The second panellist at the event was Gareth Newham of the Institute for Security Studies.
During the discussion, it was heard that the police service had nine acting commissioners since 1994 and that…
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