Cachalia was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa as the constitution allows for the appointment of no more than two ministers outside of the National Assembly.
This comes after allegations by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner, Lt Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, accused Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Crime Detection head, Lt Gen Shadrack Sibiya, of colluding with criminals.
Cachalia previously served as Gauteng MEC for Community Safety and Economic Development from 2004 to 2010.
Ramaphosa appointed him to chair the anti-corruption Advisory Council in 2022.
“I have decided to put Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu on a leave of absence with immediate effect. The minister has undertaken to give his full cooperation to the commission to enable it to work.
“I have decided to appoint Professor Firoz Cachalia as acting Minister of Police. Professor Cachalia is currently a professor of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand and the chairperson of the national anti-corruption advisory.”
A former member of the United Democratic Front and having represented the African National Congress and South African Communist Party since 1994, Cachalia is no stranger to the political realm.
With an appetite for activism from a young age he became an active student against the apartheid regime.
“They took action and we turned every action they took into a basis for further development of the struggle. So people mobilised around Neil Aggett recognised as a hero of the working class of the trade union movement. Their attempts to preserve the system always created opportunities for further development of the political struggle.”
In 1981, he was arrested and detained for three weeks under the Internal Security Act.
In 2020 he took the stand during the Neil Aggett inquest and relayed his experience with the apartheid police,
“We were prepared for what happened, like I said there was no way anyone, none of us would have testified to save our skins and all of us went into detention immediately we came out and continued our activities.”
He continued his work for the liberation movement, becoming one of the leaders during the Convention for a Democratic SA negotiations and led committees in the Gauteng Provincial legislature post 1994.
He served as Gauteng MEC of Community and Economic Safety from 2004 to 2010.
In 2024 he broke down key principles for building safer communities,
“So, if all crime is local, we have to understand the specific safety issues community by community and address the capacity constraints at the police station level. People expect to report crime. They want the police to be able to act on crime that has been reported at station level.”
Currently employed as a Professor of Law at the Witwatersrand University, Cachalia will occupy his post at the beginning of August.
--SABC--
