The “police wars”, highlighted in testimony before the Madlanga Commission, are symptomatic of a deeper moral fracture that has penetrated the soul of the ANC.
This is the view of Eastern Cape premier and the party’s provincial chair, Oscar Mabuyane, who said the conflict within the SAPS was “a tragic reminder that the decay we once confronted as external, now resides within our own ranks”.
Addressing the ANC’s provincial executive committee in East London on Monday, Mabuyane described the evidence before the commission as a “shadow of deep national anxiety” which had “peeled off the layers of our fragility as a governing movement”.
He said: “The so-called police wars are not merely institutional conflicts, they are symptomatic of a deeper moral fracture that has penetrated the soul of our movement.
“To make matters worse, parliament’s ad hoc committee runs a parallel process, amplifying the same fractures, the same divisions, the same wounded egos.
“Each testimony, each leak, each sensational headline chips away at the dignity of the ANC.”
Announced in July by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Madlanga Commission is investigating allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi of collusion and corruption among politicians, senior police officials, prosecutors, intelligence operatives and elements of the judiciary.
A parliamentary committee is also probing Mkhwanazi’s statements which have implicated suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu and others in alleged wrongdoing.
Mabuyane said the establishment of the commission, chaired by justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, “was a moment of principled action and transparency, not political expediency or an attempt to sweep problems under the carpet”.
He said the president’s decision “reflects the ANC-led government’s willingness to take responsibility, clean its own house and reaffirm its commitment to building a capable and ethical state”.
Mabuyane said he was deeply concerned by the conduct of some ANC members in respect of what was unfolding before the commission.
“We must allow the judicial process to run its full course ... The ANC is not a shield for criminality. It is the sword of the people in the fight against it.”
Mabuyane said indications were that the ANC would maintain its grip as the ruling party in the Eastern Cape, but he was concerned about the party’s standing in society, conceding that “the people of SA are losing faith in us”.
“We are mocked daily in taxis, taverns and church gatherings, as the ANC is no longer spoken of as the liberator, but as a symbol of what went wrong.”
He said this moral drift came at a perilous time ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
“The stakes could not be higher. The opposition vultures are circling, eager to feast on the carcass of a weakened ANC.
We must be the first province to speak truth to power, to insist that the ANC cannot lead the nation if it cannot lead itself
“The right wing is emboldened, a symbolic attempt to resurrect the colonial arrogance of white liberalism and to plant it in the political heart of our people.
“But comrades, let us not be distracted by white minority ambition. Let us instead confront the hard truth that the enemy within our movement is far more dangerous than any opposition outside.
“If we fail to cleanse the ANC, if we fail to renew its soul, then the verdict of history will be merciless.
“We will be remembered not as the generation that consolidated freedom, but as the generation that squandered it.
“The Eastern Cape, as the cradle of our revolution, must once again rise as the moral conscience of the ANC.
“We must be the first province to speak truth to power, to insist that the ANC cannot lead the nation if it cannot lead itself.”
Daily Dispatch
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