Squirming Andrea Johnson’s Madlanga grilling gave voyeurism an unsettling edge

Since the inception of its public hearings in September last year the Madlanga Commission has been the source of both great depression and voyeuristic delight. Watching, listening to and reading the testimonies has instilled a sense of shock and anger and even instigated bouts of nausea in the South African citizenry.But let’s be honest, we have enjoyed the squirming and sweating of those on the stand. Nothing like the sight of Julius Mkhwanazi gulping gallons of water, Brown Mogotsi looking all confused and Paul O’Sullivan being brought down to Earth.The thoroughness of the evidence leaders and the incredible sharpness of the three commissioners have had citizens having fun with the pain of those they believe have been wronging them right under their noses. It is not as if those doing the grilling are doing it for the enjoyment of those at home. There is no Judge Judy here. They are fulfilling the mandate of the commission to the ultimate, digging deep into the rot that infests our criminal justice system.When some of the would-be witnesses have called in sick and checked into hospital on the eve of a hearing there has been absolutely no sympathy from the Ubuntu nation. To this day, very few in this country believe that Crime Intelligence deputy chief Feroz Khan’s shooting was real. The overwhelming belief of the chattering classes is that he staged his own attempted assassination to avoid accountability at all costs.This lowly newspaper man must admit that he, like many of his fellow citizens, has had many voyeuristic moments in the nearly 12 months of the commission’s life. But this week there was something quite unsettling about the voyeurism that the nation was consumed with. The poor victim of the roasting was one Andrea Johnson – a deserving one at that – but one who should never have found herself in that position. Johnson has endured more than a week of justified torture on the stand, squirming like so many who have been in that seat before.The voyeurism was unsettling not because of who she is, but what she is and what she has been. The now former head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) was an ace prosecutor with more than three decades’ experience, hailed by colleagues and foes in the defence trenches as someone who could always deliver a killer blow to the criminal element. It is no accident that she was intricately involved in high-profile cases such as the prosecution of the late national police commissioner Jackie Selebi, former Olympian Oscar Pistorius and the incurably corrupt Brett Kebble. There were many other cases of great consequences and some quite routine, that Johnson shone in. She was one of the top brass of the Scorpions (formally the Directorate of Special Operations) which earned her good stripes to be the inaugural chief of Idac when it was set up in 2024. Before that she had succeeded Hermione Cronje as chief of the Investigating Directorate, which was an interim two-year structure established to expedite the probing and prosecution of cases arising out of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.On Sunday night Johnson tendered her resignation, asking to leave with immediate effect. This is a phrase that traumatises South Africans who had to scramble for illegal holy waters whenever President Cyril Ramaphosa pronounced during the Covid-19 lockdown. And they were retraumatised when Senzo Mchunu, the suspended police minister who still earns a fat salary while looking after Jamludi (for the uninitiated that is a common name for your favourite horned livestock in KwaZulu-Natal), disbanded the Political Killings Task Team with immediate effect.In her resignation Johnson pitied herself, saying the attacks on Idac, “let alone the attacks on me, do not sit well with me. I have given 30 years of service to an organisation I love dearly. I cannot be the reason that there is so much negative attention and reputational risk to Idac and the NPA.”It was a seemingly selfless sacrifice, but it was an ending that was inevitable. Her performance before the commission was woeful, with concession after concession that showed that a lot was rotten within the state of Idac. When her Friday testimony wrapped up it was clear to all, voyeur and serious watcher alike, that she had harsh consequences coming her way. She had been part of a dark plot that she should never have allowed herself to be drawn into. South Africa’s spook community, and SAPS Crime Intelligence in particular, is a cesspool. Serious allegations of corruption and ties to organised crime are among the reasons we have the commission and the investigations that have flowed from it. For reasons known only to her, a close associate at this point, Johnson dived head-first into this cesspool. Not only that, she seems to have weaponised the elite anti-corruption unit she founded and headed to partake in the biting contest that was happening under this cesspool muck.The thing is, Johnson was no victim or incidental participant in the biting contest. She was willing to bet her esteemed position that had been acquired through her stellar career and reputation of integrity for this mysterious project. Whatever the ultimate objective of the project was, what we know is that some seriously dodgy individuals were in the network. She herself may not have sipped coffee with the lords of organised crime, but her very deliberate actions were in support of a cause that she swore she would oppose and spent about 30 years fighting.Sadly, in South Africa’s increasingly re-racialising environment, there has been a lot of banter about the ethnic identity of those involved in this derailing of Idac’s mission. That is so damn misplaced. In times like these we should focus on the real picture. Whether it is the crisis at the Road Accident Fund, the governance meltdown at the Public Investment Corporation or the collapse in municipalities, we should be asking much deeper questions than scapegoating sections of society. Johnson and those who enabled her do not represent any ethnic group. They are individuals acting as individuals.Let’s rather focus on properly building an institution that the country so badly needs. Weeding out the bad elements capacitating Idac with highly skilled personnel will only be the beginning. We have to make sure that there is effective oversight of this powerful body. The Madlanga Commission has shown us that even those we believe are people of high integrity are susceptible to manipulation by dark forces. Retired judge Takalani Raulinga’s appointment as Idac’s first ombud is a great start. The NPA’s leadership has to be alert to the potential for Idac to be abused for political and criminal ends. Parliament, which has been exposed for being asleep throughout this capture of the criminal justice system, has to show that lessons have been learnt.There is also a big teaching moment for South Africans here. Johnson was able to deceive us because we are so desperate for good guys. She was one of them and we believed she continued to be one. This is not to say that there must be blanket cynicism. We still need to celebrate the good guys and encourage all other citizens to emulate them. But we must not be blinkered about the possibility that the best among us are capable of losing their way. DM