The maverick cop disrupting South African policing

Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s popularity reflects a country crying out for a hero

Arriving at his press conference in July last year, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi made a striking entrance. Dressed in fatigues and flanked by gun-toting officers, he looked less like a South African policeman than a west African general about to announce a coup.

Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi

And in a way he did. That day in Durban Mr Mkhwanazi, the police commissioner for the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), set South Africa alight. He alleged that politicians and police leaders were in cahoots with organised crime. Kingpins, he said, had leaned on the police minister and the national commissioner (his boss) to shut a unit investigating politically motivated killings. He claimed that police were colluding with a drug-trafficking cartel. The effects were explosive. Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, suspended the minister; other high-ups have since fallen. An inquiry has found staggering links between gangsters, police and public officials.

Why did Mr Mkhwanazi go public? His supporters say he is an ethical public servant: a cop’s cop who felt the need to save what was left of the South African Police Service (SAPS). Officers who have worked with him call him a straight-shooter and an inspiring leader. But even those who praise Mr Mkhwanazi question his motives. They suggest that his press conference was part of a turf war. Some claim he oversaw extra-judicial killings of suspected criminals, an allegation he denies.

Unless the inquiry finds hard evidence against him, Mr Mkhwanazi’s reputation will emerge enhanced. He is one of the most popular people in South Africa. A crowd-funding campaign has raised money to buy him cows. He is the favourite to take over as the national commissioner. Political parties are obsequiously courting him.

That makes sense. A large majority of South Africans tell pollsters they would swap elected leaders for a strongman who could bring security and jobs. Mr Mkhwanazi, who describes himself as a family man, could meet the latent demand for a conservative political leader who is tough on crime—a South African equivalent to El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele. For now he says he has no interest in elected politics. South Africans will remain interested in him.

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