GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament
13 November 2025
The only reason Western Cape Premier Alan Winde had for withholding the report that he requested from the Western Cape Police Ombudsman was that it exposed how absolutely toothless the whole exercise was.
The Premier’s story that he kept the report under wraps because the matter was sub judice and lives could be in danger sounds sensational, but it is not backed up by a report released today, which contains nothing that wasn’t already in the public domain.
Having sought to capitalise on remarks by a judge by gang infiltration of senior ranks in the police, and take the opportunity to be seen to be doing something about crime, the Premier was left holding an empty packet.
Seeking to spare himself the embarrassment of making a grand pronouncement that would fizzle into nothing, he kept the report in his drawer for three years.
The remarks made by Judge Thulare in the bail application of two accused persons in 2022, which prompted the Premier to request an investigation by the Ombudsman, mirror the alleged collusion between police and criminals presently in the spotlight at the Madlanga Commission.
The Commission’s terms of reference are sufficiently broad to demand that it look into the reasons for Judge Thulare believing that gangsters had infiltrated the police in the Western Cape and why the police and IPID have not investigated the matter.