The ANC intentionally weakened law enforcement to facilitate state looting

Member of Parliament Ian Cameron claimed the South African Police Service (SAPS), the Hawks, and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) were intentionally hollowed out to facilitate state looting.

Cameron is an expert on security matters and serves as the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police.

He told delegates at the 2026 BizNews Conference in Hermanus that weakening South Africa’s security cluster was not merely a matter of incompetence.

“The entire security cluster, including the SAPS, the Hawks, the NPA, has, over time, been hollowed out,” he said.

“For so long, I’ve heard people say they’re just incompetent. That’s an old excuse. The majority of the hollowing out was absolutely intentional.”

“It was absolutely deliberate because the ANC and the criminal cartels linked to them cannot function to loot state coffers if they do not control the police.”

Cameron said the ANC had to make sure that the SAPS, Hawks, and the NPA do not function, because otherwise they couldn’t steal money.

By deliberately crippling these institutions, they ensure there is no functional oversight to prevent billions of rands from being siphoned off.

“When these institutions are weakened, it literally opens state coffers for billions of rands to be stolen,” he said.

He explained that the process involved making political appointments of individuals with integrity issues to high-ranking positions.

Cameron cited the head of supply chain management, who was appointed despite being investigated for PPE fraud.

He claimed the integrity management system is totally broken, with vetting processes failing to catch those involved in significant corruption.

This allows parts of the state to essentially become cartels, enabling organised crime to flourish with significant state involvement.

“It is interesting to see that the consequences of political appointments past aren’t remembered by the very people who made those appointments,” he said.

Honest police officers work in horrendous conditions

Cameron paid respect to many honest and hard-working police officers who have to endure horrendous conditions.

“The good police officers have to work alongside colleagues they don’t trust. One survey showed that 50% of police members don’t trust their colleagues,” he said.

He noted that even high-level investigators are forced to work under challenging conditions due to systemic neglect.

Despite these issues, they are expected to confront sophisticated criminal networks that have better systems than the police.

He said there are many police officers and other South Africans with great knowledge of how to tackle the country’s crime crisis.

However, they are hampered by weakened institutions and political actors working with criminal networks.

He said the weakened police service and Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) created a vacuum that criminal networks and gangs filled.

Cameron added that there are media smear campaigns against people trying to expose and stop the problems at these institutions.

“You’ll notice that they move to extreme statements in the media to try to contain those who are actually pushing back against the corruption,” he said.

Cameron said solutions to crime, such as the devolution of policing or the use of reservists, are blocked because they are viewed as political threats.

“That’s also why they want to disarm citizens. They want to centralise everything to ensure they are not threatened by someone else,” he said.

He claimed South Africa’s crime crisis is driven by a total lack of political will to maintain a clean, effective law-enforcement body.

This is because a strong police force and a healthy prosecuting authority would hinder the ability of those in power to steal.