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 tackle to the nation on Sunday night time, additionally declaring he was establishing an unbiased fee of inquiry into the claims.
“The Fee will examine the function of present or former senior officers in sure establishments who might have aided or abetted the alleged felony exercise,” Ramaphosa stated.
“To ensure that the Fee to execute its capabilities successfully, I’ve determined to place the Minister of Police Mr. Senzo Mchunu on a go away of absence with rapid impact,” 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 regarded 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 obtained 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 tackle Ramaphosa famous Mkhwanazi had “made public critical allegations concerning the existence and operation of a complicated felony syndicate that has allegedly infiltrated legislation enforcement and intelligence constructions in South Africa.”
FILE – South Africa’s Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, heart, 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 most recent blow to the delicate Authorities of Nationwide Unity (GNU), fashioned simply over a yr in the past after the ANC misplaced its parliamentary majority for the primary time because the 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 better factionalism inside an already divided ANC.
“These allegations offered the President with a chance to point out daring and agency management,” South Africa’s second-biggest get together, the Democratic Alliance, stated in an announcement.
“As an alternative, he has as soon as once more outsourced govt accountability to a fee, and South Africans have grown cynical of speak outlets, activity groups and commissions which they see as shopping for time and avoiding accountability.”
The Each day Maverick newspaper on Monday additionally accused the president of a “fee of inquiry dependancy,” noting what it stated was his fondness for passing the buck to pricey inquiries whose suggestions are then not acted on.
