South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa on the annual BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, July 6, 2025.
Eraldo Peres/AP
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Eraldo Peres/AP
JOHANNESBURG — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended his police minister after explosive allegations of hyperlinks to organized crime had been made in opposition to him.
Ramaphosa made the announcement in a particular deal with to the nation on Sunday evening, additionally declaring he was organising an unbiased fee of inquiry into the claims.
“The Commission will investigate the role of current or former senior officials in certain institutions who may have aided or abetted the alleged criminal activity,” Ramaphosa stated.
“In order for the Commission to execute its functions effectively, I have decided to put the Minister of Police Mr. Senzo Mchunu on a leave of absence with immediate effect,” he added.
Mchunu, 67, has denied the allegations. He was an ally of Ramaphosa within the African Nationwide Congress (ANC) get together, regarded as untainted by corruption, and thought of a potential successor to the president.
However earlier this month KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant-Basic Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi broke with protocol to carry his personal press convention the weekend earlier than claiming Mchunu has acquired funds from a corruption suspect. He additionally accused his boss of getting disbanded a police activity group investigating political killings after exterior stress.
In his deal with Ramaphosa famous Mkhwanazi had “made public serious allegations about the existence and operation of a sophisticated criminal syndicate that has allegedly infiltrated law enforcement and intelligence structures in South Africa.”
FILE – South Africa’s Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, middle, visits an deserted gold mine the place miners are rescued from under floor, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Jan. 14, 2025.
Themba Hadebe/AP
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Themba Hadebe/AP
Ramaphosa, who got here to workplace promising an finish to the endemic corruption that plagues South African authorities, stated the fee of inquiry would current its preliminary findings inside three months. The allegations are the newest blow to the delicate Authorities of Nationwide Unity (GNU), fashioned simply over a 12 months in the past after the ANC misplaced its parliamentary majority for the primary time for the reason that introduction of democracy in 1994.
Different political events had been fast to criticize the president, who is usually perceived as being gradual to make agency selections on divisive points that would result in higher factionalism inside an already divided ANC.
“These allegations provided the President with an opportunity to show bold and firm leadership,” South Africa’s second-biggest get together, the Democratic Alliance, stated in a press release.
“Instead, he has once again outsourced executive responsibility to a commission, and South Africans have grown cynical of talk shops, task teams and commissions which they see as buying time and avoiding accountability.”
The Day by day Maverick newspaper on Monday additionally accused the president of a “commission of inquiry addiction,” noting what it stated was his fondness for passing the buck to expensive inquiries whose suggestions are then not acted on.
