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6 days ago
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- Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi called for journalists to be investigated by the State Security Agency, lose their jobs and face imprisonment for alleged misinformation.
- Sanef described Mkhwanazi’s comments as reminiscent of oppressive apartheid-era tactics designed to curb truthful journalism.
- Sanef urged national police commissioner Fannie Masemola and Police Minister Firoz Cachalia to publicly condemn Mkhwanazi’s remarks, labelling them as a gross overreach of his authority.
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has condemned comments made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who called for the State Security Agency to investigate a list of journalists.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Mkhwanazi appeared before a parliamentary ad hoc committee which is investigating allegations of political interference in the South African Police Service (SAPS).
On Tuesday, Mkhwanazi urged the ad hoc committee and the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence to authorise the state security apparatus to conduct a counterintelligence investigation into certain journalists.
His request was based on alleged cases of misinformation purportedly fuelled by elements within SAPS using some journalists to publish “certain narratives”.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mkhwanazi went further, calling for journalists who publish misinformation to lose their jobs and face imprisonment.
He said:
For this to stop, I am going to hope that lawmakers like yourselves in Parliament are going to put measures in place to make sure that a journalist is not going to hide behind being a journalist if he is reporting things that are wrong and they damage other people’s images.
“That they are not only going to be held accountable by that media house by losing their jobs, but they must end up in prison. There must be a heavy penalty for the mistakes done by journalists.”
Sanef described Mkhwanazi’s remarks as an attack on media freedom.
“This would represent a significant setback for media freedom in South Africa, reminiscent of the oppressive tactics employed by the apartheid state to suppress truthful journalism,” Sanef said in a statement.
“This is a chilling attack on the constitutional rights to a free press.”
The organisation called on national police commissioner Fannie Masemola and Police Minister Firoz Cachalia to publicly condemn the remarks as unwarranted and an unsubstantiated overreach of Mkhwanazi’s powers.
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The context of Mkhwanazi’s utterances was based on media reports on the activities of Crime Intelligence, including findings from a report by the Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI).
The report recommends criminal and disciplinary charges against Masemola for approving the purchase of properties worth a total of R120 million by Crime Intelligence.
It also recommended charges against the suspended head of Crime Intelligence, Major General Dumisani Khumalo, and the suspended chief financial officer of Crime Intelligence, Major General Philani Lushaba, for gross financial misconduct.
Mkhwanazi asserted that the IGI report, which News24 reported on, was classified.
He said the secrecy of Crime Intelligence’s operations was sacrosanct.
Mkhwanazi also questioned whether Crime Intelligence should be interrogated in open sessions of parliamentary committees, arguing that, even in cases of alleged corruption, investigations needed to remain secret as revealing their activities could destabilise the country.
Sanef criticised these comments.
Sanef said:
Crime Intelligence was not above the law. Over the past two decades, journalists have been at the forefront of exposing the abuse of the so-called secret slush fund in CI (Crime Intelligence).
“The context here is also that journalists, whistleblowers, investigators, lawyers, accountants, auditors, liquidators and activists are either harassed or assassinated for uncovering nefarious activities.”
Mkhwanazi told the ad hoc committee that specific journalists from News24, City Press and the Sunday Times should be investigated.
Citing examples of alleged misinformation, Mkhwanazi claimed that Abram Mashego, whom he erroneously stated was from News24, was being “handled” by Crime Intelligence, among others.
Mashego is a senior reporter at City Press.
Mkhwanazi recounted receiving an inquiry from Mashego about deputy national commissioner for crime detection Shadrack Sibiya launching legal action.
He questioned why, out of all SAPS police officers and senior management, the journalist sought comment from him.
He said:
I said to him, ‘You are still pushing this narrative, and I hope you are not one of those captured’. I used the word ‘hope’ knowing that he was one of them.
“I don’t know any court papers. To date, I have not seen any court papers. I have not been served with anything, but he (Mashego) might have been briefed that there is this court [bid], so he must start asking these questions.”
He further accused the journalist of being one of many “enablers” along with other journalists.
“That’s why I am calling for a state security investigation against them because I have a list of them. There are a handful of them,” he said.
“It’s just sad that he (Mashego) writes for the same media house that has very credible journalists who are doing a wonderful job within the very same News24; who investigate cases of corruption, of murders of people, and they bring it to our attention, which forces us to conduct criminal investigations.
“And yet we have these ones who are used to publish the wrong information, misinformation.”
He argued that it could not be the case that everyone, but the media is held accountable: “There are good journalists, but there are also bad ones in the mix.”
Sanef underscored that the media is protected from having to divulge sources, citing public interest protections upheld by the High Court’s rulings in Bosasa vs Basson (2012) and SABC vs Avusa (2010).
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“These threats against journalists and their sources, and any moves to investigate the media, are intimidation tactics to protect the allegedly corrupt and prevent legitimate journalistic work in the public interest from exposing them,” the organisation wrote.
“Minister Cachalia and commissioner Masemola must condemn any attempts to undermine the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of our media, to target whistleblowers and to hide alleged corruption from the public.
“Failure to do so will herald the destruction of any semblance of democratic process in our country and will push us further into a country where unchecked power can no longer be interrogated,” Sanef concluded.
