South Africa’s president suspended the country’s police chief over accusations of abuse and corruption, but the move failed to assuage allies who wanted a firmer response.
The move comes amid mounting frustration with the country’s law enforcement, which for decades has faced allegations of abuse — including thousands of cases of a still-prevalent torture mechanism used during apartheid — and yet failed to reduce crime.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has “once again outsourced executive responsibility,” by getting a commission to look into the accusations, the leader of the ruling coalition’s second-biggest party said, while the Mail & Guardian’s editorial board lamented that if the latest allegations were true, “then there is no mistaking that we are living in a mafia state.”
