I saw something on SABC 3 news last night that I haven't seen for a long time: a politician doing her job. Could this have been because good ol' Phil "Chippa" Molefe has been sent home to do some gardening and is not falling about the various SABC newsrooms deciding what we can see?

Nah, it had nothing to do with Chippa or anyone else at Incompetence Towers.

Have you heard of The Little Engine that Could? Well, this was a politician, a member of parliament, who decided that she could - and that she should. She is the chairman of parliament's portfolio committee on police, her name is Lydia Sindisiwe "Sindi" Chikunga, and she wasn't going to take shit from any white man - or black man for that matter.

According to Sapa, Chikunga yesterday asked acting national police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi which of his 24-person delegation she could trust.

Referring to reinstated crime intelligence head General Richard Mdluli, as well as suspended KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Major-General Johan Booysen, Chikunga said: "The head of crime intelligence - our hope in fighting crime in this country - is allegedly involved in serious misconduct ... What is the feeling [for us]... when the most senior people in the police are suspected of being involved in criminal conduct such as this?

"What is this supposed to mean? Who is sitting in front of this portfolio committee? Who must we trust? Who are you? Can you define yourself to this portfolio committee so that we know?"

Looking a little green about the gills, Mkhwanazi reportedly responded that he had to "respect" a court's reinstatement of Mdluli, following his earlier suspension from the police. Mdluli was suspended last year for alleged murder and fraud, but reinstated, following the "court ruling", at the beginning of the month. (See more below.)

Mkhwanazi, who earlier admitted to being "embarrassed' by the various scandals involving senior police officers that are presently doing the rounds, said an investigation into allegations of corruption against Mdluli was "ongoing" (whatever that means).

On Monday, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) - which has apparently re-discovered its moral compass lately - well, sort of, and with a couple of snafus here and there - called for a judicial commission of inquiry into the corruption allegations implicating Mdluli, as well as Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa.

Meanwhile, apparently in another room at parliament - seems to have been an awful lot of action at parly yesterday, sort of restores your faith in the system, for about three minutes - acting head of the national prosecuting authority, Nomgcobo Jiba ("the Hutt") said there had been no political pressure on any official in the NPA to drop charges against General Mduli.

"It would be a sad day in the country if we take our decisions because of political pressure," she told parliament's portfolio committee on justice after briefing MPs on the NPA's strategic plan for the year.

You have a point there, madam, you have a point there. And I'm glad you have plan, a "strategic" plan to boot, for the year.

Sapa continued as follows (with the occasional interpolation in brackets from me): "Mdluli is tipped to become the country's next police commissioner [not sure who did the tipping - but anyway it's one of those things that newspapers copy and repeat ad infinitum] after fraud and murder charges against him were dropped two months apart, amid reports of top-level political pressure on the NPA and on the Inspector General of Intelligence, Faith Radebe, to let him off the hook.

"Mdluli was reinstated as head of the Crime Intelligence Division (CID) after the NPA dropped fraud charges against him relating to the alleged abuse of the police's [secret] service account [or slush fund]. Along with Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and CID finance chief Solly Lazarus [not Israeli], he was accused of sanctioning the abuse of millions of rands from the account for private ends.

"Facing mounting pressure on the matter, Mthethwa on Monday [in a Kgalema Motlanthe-type move] referred the claims that he abused R200 000 in police intelligence funds to refurbish his house to the Auditor-General.

"Mdluli has been dogged by murder charges relating to the killing of a love rival in 1999. But in February, the NPA withdrew charges against him and three others stemming from the death of Oupa Ramogibe, and established an inquest to determine whether the state had enough evidence for a trial. The inquest heard this week that key evidence in the case had been destroyed [my emphasis]."

Ok, so what do we learn from all this?

First, it has been mainly City Press, fuelled by Media24's investigative team (Jacques Poo, as I call Pauw, Andrew Trenchcoat, Adriaan Basson [though I have trouble keeping track of where exactly Basson works from week to week], and some others), that has been running with this story. And parts have also come from the Sunday Times' special squad: Mzilikazi wa Afrika, Stephan Hofstatter and Rob Rose.

But let us spare a thought for Paul Kirk, please, the Citizen's one-man investigative bureau in Durban. Actually, he broke this story to begin with. What happened, as I understand it, is that his chinas in the Durban cops said to him: "Hey, listen, the Sunday Times has just fingered us Hawks as a death squad that would make Eugene de Kock's operation seem like a girl scouts' camp. But the Times has it wrong; we've been fingered as such because we've been investigating the seriously leaking slush fund ..."

And the rest, as they say, is history. Kirk has also in the last week or so had a couple of remarkable stories about the Mthethwa's famous security fence but also about the slush fund and the hiring of family members to the crime intelligence unit, though they knew/know as much about police work as I do - well, actually less. One LS Mthethwa (71846468) and one T Ngubane (71915664), both of whom had no police training and are the minister's children, were, according to Kirk, hired as crime intelligence agents by Mdluli.

Second, I think the police minister is in deep trouble. He has, as I have said, pulled what is apparently a Motlanthe-type move by asking the Auditor-General to investigate the erection of his famous fence (behind which, incidentally, there is no one living ...it's a bush pied-a-terre, a la Zuma's place in Nkandla, but it's not used). I don't see how the minister's going to get out of this one - or these ones.

I also don't think (thirdly) that Mdluli is going to make the commissioner-ship. I have been wrong before - more times than I've swallowed a latte in my life - but if Jacob Zuma makes this fellow the national commissioner, then he's really got a disaster wish (Zuma does - and maybe Mdluli too).

Except ... what is the basis of the friendship between Mdluli and Zuma? From where and what situation do they know each other? Maybe the various investigative teams will find an answer to that question - and then we'll know why Zuma has to make Mdluli national commissioner and why the paragraph above is wrong. Just a thought. Use it, don't use it.

Fourthly, talking of all this, I have read (and even written) a lot of "scary" material in my life. But if you want to find a way of not sleeping, read Charl du Plessis's piece in City Press of last Sunday on the murder case that has been dropped against Mdluli ("Victim's sister raped, other sister 'will be next'").

Lastly, as my mother used to say, it seems that if you want something done, you have to ask a woman: Sindi Chikunga, Dene Smuts and Diane Kohler Barnard are the ones in pursuit of Mthethwa and Mdluli. I wish them luck.

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