WHEN President Jacob Zuma appointed Riyah Phiyega head of the South African Police Service last year following the fall of the incumbent at the time, Bheki Cele, many eyebrows were raised.

Many wondered if this was a wise move, given the disastrous results of the past two rather political appointments.

ANC stalwart Jackie Selebi proved one big mistake - the head of the police service hanging around shady characters is simply an accident waiting to happen - while his successor, Cele, seemed a vast improvement, until it all unravelled in a pack of lies about leases for police headquarters.

Cele is still challenging his dismissal in the courts and the jury is still out on him. But the damage has been done.

Given the double fiasco of the Selebi and Cele experiments, maybe Zuma was a little circumspect when naming the next national police commissioner, hence the choice of Phiyega.

Many opted to go the wait-and-see route before passing final judgment on Phiyega's leadership. Here too, the jury is largely still out. But we are concerned by the apparent lack of decisive leadership from the police head office. Symptomatic of this is the behaviour of some of the foot soldiers who have done their utmost to ruin the image of the police service even further.

What the nation witnessed in the footage of the brutal treatment of Mozambican taxi driver Mido Macia by five officers for a minor road offence in Daveyton last week is a case in point. Macia was later found dead in a police cell.

We'll let the law run its course before declaring the officers implicated in the messy affair guilty.

While politicians saw a chance to do what they do best, rushing to the scene to declare their solidarity with the wronged party, those that matter the most in the police service were nowhere to be seen.

The message that such criminal behaviour will not be tolerated in the service would have been the more stronger coming from Phiyega herself or someone of similar gravitas.

It should have been the national police commissioner making a speech at that Daveyton street corner, instead of the politician we saw.

The shenanigans of others in leadership positions in the police, such as the Limpopo provincial commissioner who saw fit to repaint his car at taxpayers' expense, don't help the cause at all.

For all his faults, Cele did one thing well: lead or at least appeared to be doing so. It is a lesson Phiyega would do well to learn.