Johannesburg – Retired apartheid generals attacking the police crime intelligence division threaten the country’s security, the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) said on Monday.

“The various allegations levelled at the leadership of crime intelligence division… and the clear turf battles seeming to be raging… is a threat to the security, peace and stability of our country,” MKMVA chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe told reporters in Johannesburg.

He said generals and colonels who served in the apartheid-era security intelligence had retired at the dawn of democracy and established private intelligence institutions.

“These are trained people… Those generals are paraded as experts on crime fighting and have the audacity to regularly bash the SA Police Service (SAPS), especially its crime intelligence division.

“We in the MKMVA, knew these generals and colonels as criminals who never upheld any law, except racist apartheid, which was declared a crime against humanity by the United Nations.”

Mdluli saga

He said civil society had been against the establishment of a crime intelligence unit, and was intent on discrediting the police.

“Today those apartheid activists readily discredit the statistics provided by the SAPS and enthusiastically condemn all action taken by the SAPS in efforts to transform itself to better serve our society.”

He singled out former crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli as an example of this.

“Civil society has been against him returning to perform his duty as a policeman. It is dangerous. We will wake up one morning to an uprising and question why did it go about without being detected?”

Lobby group Freedom Under Law won an application in September for a review and setting aside of the decision to withdraw criminal and disciplinary charges against Mdluli.

Mdluli was suspended amid charges of fraud and corruption, and charges relating to the murder of his ex-lover’s husband.

Last week, the Institute for Security Studies accused the police of miscalculating crime levels and downplaying the rate of violent crime.

“The statistics presented by the police underplay the shocking reality of crime, especially the most traumatising acts of crimes,” ISS governance, crime and justice division head Gareth Newham said at the time.

Defence dept ‘has lost many rifles’

Maphatsoe said the veterans knew who was discrediting the police.

“We know them, we are not going to name them as yet.”

He said the MKMVA was interested in matters affecting the crime intelligence division because once it was destabilised, the security of the country would be compromised.

“We are concerned that the department of defence has lost many rifles… It is very dangerous to lose focus.”

He called on police management to investigate allegations of police misconduct and to take action.

“We call on civil society movements to be measured in criticising the SAPS, and acknowledge that those who stand in the forefront of damning the SAPS today, yesterday stood at the forefront of bolstering the erstwhile apartheid South African police force.”

– SAPA