By Johnathan Paoli
National police commissioner General Fannie Masemola on Thursday accused a “certain politician” and sections of the media of running a deliberate campaign of falsehoods designed to discredit him, telling Parliament that fabricated reports of his arrest were part of an orchestrated effort to undermine his leadership at a time when the police service is under intense scrutiny.
Appearing before the ad hoc parliamentary committee probing corruption and interference in the criminal justice system, Masemola told evidence leader Norman Arendse SC that a string of damaging stories published earlier this year were not inadvertent errors but targeted attacks with a clear intent.
“In June, it was reported that IDAC issued a warrant for my arrest and that I was in my office shivering with fear. This never happened. A month later, a similar story appeared. The story was dispelled eventually by the head of IDAC. I have no doubt that the intention was to discredit me and undermine my integrity,” Masemola said.
Masemola supplied the committee with examples he said underlined the tactic: sensational headlines that were later corrected or withdrawn but which he argued had already inflicted reputational damage.
He told MPs the immediate effect had been to erode public confidence in the police and to muddy the waters around real, ongoing investigations into police conduct and procurement.
The commissioner singled out one opposition politician by description but stopped short of naming a wider cast of actors.
He said the campaign had been amplified by certain media outlets that either failed to verify claims or chose to publish material that advanced a political objective.
The row escalated in September when DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard publicly suggested Masemola had improper contact with former Crime Intelligence boss Major General Lushaba, who faces criminal charges.
Kohler Barnard urged the acting minister to act, implying that Masemola’s conduct warranted sanction.
Masemola dismissed the allegation as “baseless gossip”, telling the committee he had been in Cape Town at the time and that Lushaba, contrary to public claim, had no bail conditions restricting meetings.
“Even if I met him, is there a criminal offence?” he asked rhetorically.
The commissioner was cautious, however, about endorsing calls from KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi who earlier this week urged that intelligence agencies investigate journalists accused of being paid to run stories.
Masemola said he would not go so far as to call in the State Security Agency to probe reporters.
“As much as they enjoy media freedom, we as individuals and organisations enjoy rights. Spreading falsehoods is not the right thing to do. There are those who are paid for dirty work,” he said.
Arendse reminded Masemola of established remedies, including complaints through the Press Council and the Press Ombud, and Masemola agreed such mechanisms should be used when publication crosses into defamation or deliberate disinformation.
But he warned committee members that the corrective effect of a later retraction rarely repaired the immediate damage caused by a widely circulated front-page allegation.
Masemola placed the smear campaign in the broader context of the multiple controversies currently roiling the South African Police Service: the contested disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), allegations surrounding a R360-million SAPS healthcare contract with Medicare24, and complaints about the conduct of Crime Intelligence.
He suggested the media narratives and the administrative decisions, including the sudden move to wind down the PKTT, could be linked by political intent.
Masemola urged a measured response that protected both democratic freedoms and individual reputations.
He said he would consider formal complaints where there was evidence of malicious intent and singled out public education on media literacy as part of the solution.
The committee has adjourned its hearing of Masemola’s testimony and will resume on Friday, when MPs plan to press him further on the links, if any, between the alleged smear campaign, the PKTT disbandment and the Medicare24 procurement controversy.
INSIDE POLITICS