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Cyril Ramaphosa suspends South Africa’s police minister
14th July, 2025 12:12 AM
Facing a revolt from within his governing coalition, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa announced Sunday that he was suspending the country’s police minister and forming a commission to investigate allegations that the minister had protected allies within the country’s criminal underworld.
The allegations against the minister, Senzo Mchunu, were leveled a week ago by Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the top police commander in the southern province of KwaZulu-Natal. Mkhwanazi said Mchunu had shut down a unit that investigated political killings in order to shield from scrutiny politicians, prosecutors, police officials and members of the judiciary with ties to a criminal syndicate.
The syndicate was behind several high-profile killings, Mkhwanazi said.
Mchunu, a close ally of Ramaphosa, has denied the allegations against him. But the president was forced to act quickly as his administration became engulfed by weeks of growing political turmoil that threatened to cause the implosion of a fragile governing coalition formed with great hope and fanfare last year.
The commission will investigate whether law enforcement, intelligence and other criminal justice institutions have been infiltrated by criminal syndicates, Ramaphosa said. The inquiry will also explore whether senior justice system officials aided criminal activity or benefited from it, he said.
The allegations against Mchunu have presented the stiffest test of Ramaphosa’s ability to keep his government together amid growing anger from the Democratic Alliance, the second largest party in the coalition.
Last month, Democratic Alliance leaders rebelled against the president after he fired a deputy minister from their party for traveling overseas without permission. They argued that Ramaphosa had protected members of his party, the African National Congress, who have been accused of corruption, while he had been quick to come down on Democratic Alliance members for what they said were small infractions.
Democratic Alliance leaders are now threatening to vote against budget proposals from ministries run by members of the ANC who face corruption allegations. With the deadline for approving the budget looming at the end of this month, the government could find itself unable to pay most of its bills — akin to a government shutdown in the United States.
