Between 31 May and 21 June, crucial months in the lead-up to the “attempted insurrection” that tore through KZN and Gauteng after the 8 July incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma, Lieutenant-General Yolisa Mokgabudi, the head of the crucial SAPS Crime Intelligence (CI) Division, was absent from her post. It is not as if Mokgabudi was oblivious to the festering hotbed of factionalism she was being parachuted into by National Commissioner Khehla Sitole back in February 2021. Lieutenant-General Yolisa Mokgabudi. (Photo: Suné Payne) It was, crucially, an appointment that did not please Police Minister Bheki Cele, who had been patrolling Sitole’s operational domain for some time with regard to appointments and other matters.