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Madlanga Commission hearing record

Day 176 of the Madlanga Commission

Witness: Professor Somadoda Fikeni

The head of the body that oversees the public service told the commission South Africa does not lack good policy, it lacks the will to carry it out, and that officials at the bottom of an unequal state are the easiest to buy.

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The day in brief

What you need to know

  • Day 176 was systems evidence, not testimony about any individual. Nothing on this page is an allegation against a named person.
  • The witness was Professor Somadoda Fikeni, chairperson of the Public Service Commission (PSC), the Chapter 10 institution that monitors and investigates public administration. He gave evidence at the Bridgette Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria, per SABC News.
  • He came to the stand two days after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the new Public Service Commission Act into law on 16 September 2026, repealing the 1997 Act. Per SABC News, Fikeni described it as a milestone nearly 19 years in the making.
  • His headline, per IOL: 'South Africa is a cemetery of best policies in the world, but they are not implemented.'
  • He named the problem the 'political economy of inefficiency': per EWN and SABC News, 'the unwillingness to implement, but the presentation of a facade that we want to implement'.
  • Per EWN, he said political leadership changes too fast for reform to stick: 'I've been at the PSC over five years, and during that period, I think I've seen four ministers.'
  • Per SABC News, he told the commission that vetting in South Africa is often not taken seriously and falls short of the standards applied in many other countries.
  • He supported the call made on Day 175 by National Commissioner of Correctional Services Makgothi Thobakgale that frontline officials be vetted, and extended it across the criminal justice system, per EWN and IOL.
  • On why the lower ranks are exposed, per EWN and IOL: 'If you have a society which is the most unequal in the world, you're bound to have people who are at lower levels a lot more vulnerable to be enticed.' Conditions of service, he said, should be looked at.
  • Per IOL, he said officials who fear for their jobs become vulnerable to political pressure, and that stronger legislation protecting public servants who face interference 'would be key'.
  • Per SABC News on X, he said efforts to enforce laws and compliance are often met with resistance from government's own legal advisers, which complicates holding institutions accountable.
  • Public evidence closes on 2 October 2026 and the report to the President is due on 16 November 2026. Like Days 172 and 174, this was evidence the commission can build recommendations on.

Full coverage

The day, in depth

Why the Public Service Commission

Most of this record is about the police, the Hawks, the prosecutors and the people alleged to have bought them. Every one of those institutions sits inside a public service with its own rules on appointment, vetting, discipline and ethics, and the body that is constitutionally charged with watching over that public service is the Public Service Commission. Per EWN, Fikeni described it as the only Chapter 10 institution overseeing public administration. Bringing its chairperson to the stand in the last fortnight of public evidence fits the pattern of the past three weeks: after Dr Mark Shaw's measurement of organised crime on Day 172 and Laura Pop's design for an integrity evaluation on Day 174, the commission is gathering the material it will need to say what should change.

A new Act, two days old

On 16 September 2026, per the Presidency, President Ramaphosa signed the Public Service Commission Bill into law. The new Act repeals the Public Service Commission Act of 1997, extends the PSC's mandate to local government and public entities, allows it to direct the relevant authorities to report on how its decisions have been implemented, and makes obstructing the Commission an offence carrying up to 12 months' imprisonment, a fine of up to R50,000, or both. Per SABC News, Fikeni told the commission the Act was a milestone nearly 19 years in the making. The power to demand a report on implementation is directly relevant to what he said next.

A cemetery of best policies

Fikeni's central claim was that South Africa's problem is not a shortage of policy. Per IOL: 'South Africa is a cemetery of best policies in the world, but they are not implemented.' Per SABC News, he said the failure shows up as persistent delays, weak accountability, unstable leadership and poor coordination between institutions. He gave it a name, per EWN and SABC News: 'the political economy of inefficiency', in which 'the unwillingness to implement, but the presentation of a facade that we want to implement, is exactly at the core'. Per EWN, he put it as a posture: 'Okay, let them push, but we'll make sure that it doesn't work.' He also pointed at churn at the top, per EWN: in more than five years at the PSC he had seen four ministers, and 'before you notice, the minister is gone'. Per AV Media on X, he urged that before anyone considers new recommendations they should 'think deep and hard' about why earlier ones struggled to find expression. That is a pointed thing to say to a commission that will deliver its own recommendations in November.

Vetting that is not taken seriously

Per SABC News, Fikeni told the commission that vetting in South Africa is often not taken seriously and falls short of the rigorous standards applied in many other countries. Per EWN, he discussed the challenges in vetting processes and supported the proposal made on Day 175 by National Commissioner of Correctional Services Makgothi Thobakgale that junior prison officers be vetted, extending it to frontline officials across the criminal justice system. The commission has now heard the same point from three directions in one week: an international specialist on how to build an integrity evaluation, the head of the prisons on who is being groomed, and the head of the public service's oversight body on why the existing checks are thin.

Why the bottom of the ladder is exposed

The most concrete part of Fikeni's evidence was about who gets bought. Per EWN and IOL: 'If you have a society which is the most unequal in the world, you're bound to have people who are at lower levels a lot more vulnerable to be enticed.' Per EWN he went on: 'That's why conditions of service should be looked at. They'll be a lot more vulnerable to be enticed with all these different things so that they just make a living.' Per IOL, he tied that to job security: officials who fear losing their jobs are vulnerable to political pressure, and 'if we were to strengthen legislation protecting employees who are facing the pressures and political interference, that would be key'. Per SABC News on X, he also said enforcement efforts are often resisted by government's own legal advisers.

Where the calendar stands

Joe 'Ferrari' Sibanyoni returns for cross-examination on 21 September. Maj-Gen Feroz Khan's evidence is set down for 28 September; his outstanding written response was due on 18 September and whether it was filed has not been reported. Public evidence closes on 2 October 2026 and the report to the President is due on 16 November 2026. Whether Thobakgale's evidence was completed on Day 175 has not been reported.

In their words

Key moments from the record

“South Africa is a cemetery of best policies in the world, but they are not implemented.”
A cemetery of best policies. Professor Somadoda Fikeni, chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Day 176, 18 September 2026, per IOL.
“The unwillingness to implement, but the presentation of a facade that we want to implement, is exactly at the core of that political economy of inefficiency, where they say, 'Okay, let them push, but we'll make sure that it doesn't work'.”
The facade. Fikeni, per EWN, describing what he calls the political economy of inefficiency.
“I've been at the PSC over five years, and during that period, I think I've seen four ministers. So, sometimes the delay, you find this minister is enthusiastic about something - before you notice, the minister is gone.”
Four ministers. Fikeni, per EWN, on leadership churn.
“If you have a society which is the most unequal in the world, you're bound to have people who are at lower levels a lot more vulnerable to be enticed.”
Who gets enticed. Fikeni, per EWN and IOL, supporting the vetting of frontline officials.
“I do think that if we were to strengthen legislation protecting employees who are facing the pressures and political interference, that would be key.”
Protect the official who says no. Fikeni, per IOL.

Our analysis

The bottom line

Fikeni's evidence is the third piece of a set. Shaw on Day 172 measured the problem, Pop on Day 174 described a remedy built around verifying what officials own, and Fikeni on Day 176 described the ground any remedy will land on: a public service with good rules, thin vetting and leadership that changes before reform takes root. None of the three accused anyone. All three are the kind of evidence a report can cite when it moves from what happened to what should be done.

His most useful line for the commission is also the most uncomfortable one for it. A 'cemetery of best policies' is a warning that recommendations are cheap and implementation is not, and his advice to think hard about why earlier recommendations failed before adding new ones applies to this commission's own report. The new PSC Act's power to direct authorities to report on implementation is a small, concrete answer to that problem, and it is worth watching whether the commission leans on it.

The inequality point deserves precision. Fikeni did not say poverty excuses corruption. He said officials at the bottom of an unequal state are easier to entice, which is an argument for vetting and for decent conditions of service, and it is consistent with what Thobakgale described the day before: grooming that starts with a cigarette. It is also consistent with much of this record, in which the people alleged to have been bought were often junior and the people alleged to have done the buying were not. As with everything on this page, that is a pattern in untested evidence, not a finding about anyone.

Analysis is the archive’s own comment on the public proceedings, grounded in the record above. It weighs the evidence and the process; questions of individual guilt are for the courts and the commission to decide. Everyone named is presumed innocent.

On the record

Who testified this day

Testified

Professor Somadoda Fikeni

Chairperson, Public Service Commission

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Follow the threads

Who Professor Somadoda Fikeni connects to

Backed his call to vet frontline officials

Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale

On Day 175 the National Commissioner of Correctional Services told the commission junior prison officers should be vetted. On Day 176, per EWN and IOL, Fikeni supported the proposal and extended it to frontline officials across the criminal justice system. Both gave systems evidence; neither accused a named person.

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In the room & on the record

Counsel, the panel and sources

On the panel

  • Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga (chairperson)

Sources

← Earlier in timeDay 17517 September 2026