Operation Dudula targets Rosettenville's hijacked buildings
Operation Dudula, March and March, and other aligned groups, are back in the area, attempting to take over buildings they claim have been hijacked by foreign nationals.
The groups say they are stepping in to reclaim spaces for South Africans, because the state has failed to put its citizens first.
Rosettenville has been on the group's radar for some time, and this is not the first time they descended on the suburb.
Operation Dudula accuses law enforcement of failing to act on crime and illegal occupation of properties.
They claim hijacked buildings are being used as drug dens, harbouring criminal activity,
and worsening the housing backlogs.
As they tried to access some of the buildings, police intervened.
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IOL News
11 hours ago
- IOL News
Is Zondo's Anti-Graft Crusade Political Grandstanding?
Former Chief Justice and State Capture Commission Chair Raymond Zondo hands over the Commission's final report report to President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria on June 22, 2022. Image: Oupa Mokoena/African News Agency(ANA) Prof. Bheki Mngomezulu Former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo recently surprised many South Africans when he miraculously turned his back against President Cyril Ramaphosa on corruption and ethical conduct. His main concern was that it pained him to swear in Ministers he had made findings against while he was chairing the State Capture Commission. This was seen as an indictment of both Ramaphosa and the ANC. But was Zondo genuine when he raised this concern, or was he grandstanding so that he could regain public trust following accusations that he was not objective in executing his mandate – something that resulted in the 2021 unrests in KZN and Gauteng? The answer to this question depends on whether one holds former Chief Justice Zondo in high regard or perceives him as someone who used his position as the chairperson of the Commission to either settle political scores or fight other people's battles. To get a better sense of the context of Zondo's public statement, we need to go back into the history of the Zondo Commission and related matters. In January 2018, former President Jacob Zuma was instructed by a court of law to comply with Advocate Thuli Madonsela's recommendation that a Commission of Inquiry should be appointed to investigate the state of capture. She went further to propose that the person to chair this Commission must be appointed by the Chief Justice, not Zuma. This was done. Many things went wrong during the Commission's sitting. Zondo was accused of lacking impartiality. A case in point was his cordial interaction with President Ramaphosa, which was different from his engagement with Zuma. When Zuma felt ill-treated during his first appearance, he refused to return to the Commission. Zondo took the matter to the Constitutional Court, which tried Zuma in absentia and sent him to jail for fifteen months. This resulted in the July 2021 unrest. Another concern was when Zondo promised people like Lucky Montana and others that they would be allowed to present their side of the story. This never happened. The same happened with Arthur Fraser, who was accused of stealing what was first said to be R9 billion but later changed to R9 million. These are just some of the many things that went wrong in the Commission. After some extensions and additional funding, which pushed the Commission's budget to close to R1 billion, the first report was submitted to Ramaphosa on January 4, 2022, with Part 2 being submitted on June 22, 2022. About 1400 individuals were implicated in the report, rightly or wrongly so. Seven years after the Commission was appointed in 2018, the implementation of its recommendations has not been completed. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading In October 2022, Ramaphosa published his response to the Commission's report, which contained 60 action items. By November 2023, of that number, 29 items or 48% were said to have either been completed or substantially completed. Another 14 items or 23% were said to be on track, with the remaining 17 items or 29% still requiring attention and processing. When the next update report was tabled at the end of March 2025, it made for an interesting read, stating that the completion rate stood at 18%. Items which were said to have been completed but still needed further action stood at 30%. Items that were reported to be on track remained at 23% while those that still required further action stood at 7%. The success or failure of the Zondo Commission is assessed from different vantage points. The report stating that an estimated $605 million or R11 billion has been recovered following the Commission's findings saw some patting themselves on the back and being over the moon for a huge success. But those who look at the overall figure, which is sometimes estimated to be a trillion rand, argue that the figure mentioned above is a drop in the ocean. Why is Zondo suddenly finding his voice? Is he genuine when he raises his concerns, or does he hope to rewrite his history? Is he trying to compete with his predecessor, former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, by trying to leave behind a good legacy? Should his public statements be seen as his subtle way to demonstrate the independence of the judiciary, thereby nullifying the perception that it has lost credibility? Put differently, should Zondo's seeming attack on Ramaphosa be perceived as an attempt to redeem his image or that of the collective in the judiciary? These are all pertinent questions. If the argument is that there are things Zondo could not say while he was in office, it would be plausible to advance the argument that it is only now that he can do so. However, even this line of argument cannot be sustained. Zondo retired on August 31, 2024. Surely, he had ample time since then to honestly reflect on his term as the Chairperson of the State Capture Commission and the frustration he endured when he had to swear in Ministers he had made findings against. Surely, Zondo did not make any finding against Ramaphosa on the Phala Phala matter. But from an ethical point of view, did he ever feel uncomfortable having to swear in Ramaphosa as the country's President with the Phala Phala matter hanging over his head? By extension, are Zondo's concerns confined to Cabinet Ministers, or do they extend to ordinary Members of Parliament who also had thick clouds hanging over their heads? Importantly, did Zondo have the same feeling when he had to swear in Ministers and MPs who were only accused during the sitting of his Commission but were never allowed to present their side of the story? If the answer is in the affirmative, I would be extremely worried. His concern would amount to staged authenticity. However, if his answer is in the negative, then his newly found conscience would indeed be genuine. In a nutshell, there is more to Zondo's public statement than meets the eye! * Prof. Bheki Mngomezulu is Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy at Nelson Mandela University. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
The Citizen
12 hours ago
- The Citizen
SA's police serve ANC insiders, not the people: Here's how it happened
The late national police commissioner Jackie Selebi was an ANC insider. After South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, there was significant optimism about police reform in the country. Impressive steps were taken to bring the South African Police Service (Saps) under civilian control and to create a service responsive to calls for assistance from the public. During the apartheid period, South Africa's police worked to preserve the political order and pursue political opponents. It did not focus on dealing with crime. This is why the achievements of the 1990s are so important. For the first time, black South Africans could call upon officers to respond to personal emergencies. This period also saw a drop in crime levels. However, this promising early transformation was interrupted. The appointment of Jackie Selebi as national police commissioner in 2000 heralded a new era. Selebi was an African National Congress (ANC) insider. The ANC originated as a liberation movement and has governed the country since 1994. Selebi had served as the head of the ANC's Youth League in the 1980s, when it was banned. In 1987 he was appointed to the organisation's national executive committee, its highest decision-making organ. His appointment as police commissioner was the start of significant change in the purpose of policing. It marked the end of the focus on civilian control of the police force and prosecuting authorities. As an ANC insider, Selebi led efforts to establish party control over the police. ALSO READ: Madlanga inquiry: Mkhwanazi first to be consulted This politicisation gained momentum over the next two decades. In the early years it was exemplified by the suspension of the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Advocate Vusi Pikoli, by then president Thabo Mbeki, amid corruption allegations against Selebi himself. Other telling developments ensued. The Scorpions were disbanded in 2009 by acting president Kgalema Motlanthe. The unit's job was to pursue high-profile cases against senior ANC politicians (among others). The police became increasingly entangled in the ANC's internal political conflicts. At the same time the office of the national police commissioner experienced high turnover due to intense political manoeuvring. Between 2009 and 2022, there were seven national commissioners. Recent developments have once again brought the intermingling of police work and power battles in the ANC to the fore. In early July 2025, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the commissioner of police in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, made some startling claims. He called a press conference and, wearing camouflage uniform, he implicated the minister of police, Senzo Mchunu, together with the deputy national commissioner for crime detection, in a scheme to close down investigations into political assassinations in the province. President Cyril Ramaphosa rushed back from a meeting of the Brics countries in Brazil to attend to the matter. He announced that the police minister had been placed on leave with immediate effect. He also announced a judicial inquiry into the allegations. I have conducted research into South Africa's security apparatus over the last decade. Based on this work, and new research forthcoming in the Journal of Southern African Studies done with Jelena Vidojevic, co-founder of the New South Institute, it is clear that elite contestation in the ANC is intensifying. In other words, the ability of internal party structures to manage gatekeeping is declining. Many of the people involved are indifferent or even hostile to South Africa's democratic and constitutional order. As the ability of some political elites to access state resources through the party declines, some are linked with organised criminal networks. Organised crime has been on the edges of South African politics. It now risks taking a more central role. In this environment, the police service will often be the thin (blue) line between multiparty contestation according to constitutional rules and the criminalisation of politics in South Africa. The shift Large organisational changes within the police vividly illustrate this shift away from its core function. The Visible Policing programme was meant to meant to deter crime through patrols, checkpoints and roadblocks. But, instead, there was a steady decline in resource allocation. Employee numbers dropped between 2015 and 2021. Detective services and crime intelligence also experienced such declines. Conversely, employee numbers in the Protection and Security Services programme, responsible for providing bodyguards to politicians, increased sharply between 2014 and 2016. Evidence heard by the commission of inquiry into state capture suggested that some officers and budgets in the service were even used to supply President Jacob Zuma and other politicians with what amounted to a private militia. READ MORE: Police investigate allegations of Basotho military-style training camps in South Africa This reorientation of resources coincided with a rise in crime across the country, a decline in arrests by 24.5%, and a drop in the police's efficacy in solving crimes. Furthermore, a politicised police leadership effectively stopped policing various categories of crime. This was particularly true of offences like fraud, corruption, and certain types of theft, and particularly when politically connected persons were involved. The state capture commission heard extensive evidence about the failure of the police to pursue politically sensitive investigations. Investigations into senior officials were frequently frustrated or impeded, and cases at state-owned enterprises were abandoned. This shows how police resources were actively redirected as weapons of elite competition, pursuing political enemies and protecting allies within the ruling party. Mkhwanazi's claims, if substantiated, suggest that this political policing remains entrenched. What now? Ramaphosa has announced the appointment of Firoz Cachalia as the acting minister of police. Cachalia, a well regarded legal academic, served as ANC minister for community safety. Between 2019 and 2022 he was part of the ANC's national executive committee. His appointment raises serious questions. If the core problem with the police is that it has become embroiled in ANC internal politics, having an ANC insider head the ministry of police (even if only on an acting basis) threatens only to compound the problem. Moreover, South Africans have already witnessed a long and expensive judicial inquiry into state capture. And despite extensive evidence of police failure to pursue politically sensitive investigations, nothing concrete has come of it. READ MORE: Ramaphosa says Madlanga commission mustn't take more than one year How likely is it that this new initiative will be any different, especially if those investigating it and presiding over key institutions are themselves ANC insiders? To depoliticise the police service and redirect its attention and activities towards crime and emergencies, a crucial first step is to reconsider the appointment processes for the national police commissioner and other top managers. Under the current system the president has sole discretion. This bakes party-political considerations into the decision-making process. Without structural changes, genuine democratic policing will remain an elusive ideal. In 2024/25 the murder rate in South Africa stood at 42 per 100,000, among the highest in the world and close to levels not seen since the early 2000s. At the very least, the minister of police must not be an ANC insider. Democratic renewal in South Africa requires bringing the police firmly under parliamentary control. This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.
The South African
a day ago
- The South African
Gayton's son reveals why he'll never take dad's surname
Gayton McKenzie's son, Calvin Le John – the new owner of Siwelele FC, previously SuperSport United – reveals he has no intention of taking his dad's surname. The firstborn of the Minister of Sport, Art, and Culture spoke to Robert Marawa in his first interview as a soccer boss. Speaking on 947, Calvin Le John was questioned on his decision not to take his father's surname. The Siwelele boss revealed that his mother chose to give him her maiden name in her bid to disassociate with Gayton McKenzie, who at the time had been sentenced to 17 years imprisonment at Grootvlie prison for armed robbery. He said, 'She didnt want her child to grow up with the surname of a prisoner. I never changed it. Growing up, I actually felt blessed that I had my mother's surname because I did not want to be directly under my father's shadow. Calvin – the firstborn of the Minister of Sport, Art and Culture – continued: 'I don't live by the title of the son of Gayton McKenzie. I always try to keep under the radar, I just wanted my peace.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Phezu Kwabo (@phezukwabo_) In the interview, Calvin Le John praised his dad Gayton McKenzie for being a role model for many South Africans, despite his criminal past. He said, 'My father is my teacher, my mentor. I love him, respect him, and admire him. He taught me everything I know. 'His story is a lesson for every person in South Africa. 'He's one of those people who show you that you can come from nothing and make it to where he is Since Calvin Le John acquired Siwelele FC, many South Africans have accused Gayton McKenzie of having a hand in the closed business deal. Others claim he would use his position as Minister of Sport to further the club's interests. Responding to the rumours, Gayton said in a Facebook Live: 'People act like we took money from under our mattress and we just went to go buy a club. 'He bought it, I'm not part of the company….There's no consortium, he owns 100% of the company alone'. Gayton added, 'I'm very proud of him. He doesn't want to trade on McKenzie's name; that shows you he is different.' Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
