By: Buhle Mbhele
The first day of the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into allegations of political interference in the justice system resumed at 10am on Wednesday at the Brigittee Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria. Advocate Mahlape Sello SC led the presentation of Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s evidence. Chairperson of the commission Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga kick-started the proceedings with the swearing in of Mkhwanazi before Adv. Sello SC would begin.
The commission is sitting to investigate the accusations Mkhwanazi made on July 6 in Durban at the SAPS Provincial headquarters. Mkhwanazi hosted members of the media to deliver explosive information on the challenges faced by the police force, especially in KZN, and who is behind the setbacks in convictions for certain cases, among other items on the agenda. During this press briefing, Mkhwanazi told journalists that allegedly, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu disbanded the Political Killings Task Team because he wanted to protect high-profile officials and figures who are involved in organised crime.
This sent shockwaves across the country, with mounting calls for an inquiry piling up in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s mailbox. On July 13, the President announced the establishment of the commission, where Justice Madlanga would be assisted by Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC and Advocate Sandile Khumalo SC. On Wednesday, the three-phased journey to uncover the truth behind the allegations began as Mkhwanazi took the witness stand in his dark grey suit, white shirt, and a black and grey striped tie. “So help me God,” Mkhwanazi takes the oath.
Upon arrival, notably, Mkhwanazi had his own water bottle despite the three bottled water reserved for him on the stand, which sparked lack of trust assumptions from the public, especially after threats and allegations against him have been surfacing since he made those allegations in July. He began by stating that his scope of evidence will focus on the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), criminality, political interference and corruption in the justice system.
Mkhwanazi began by sharing his academic and professional career information and then proceeded to highlight that political killings have remained a big issue for the province of KZN since the days before democratic South Africa. He told the commission that the election of councillors in different municipalities led to the scourge of killings as politicians fought for power.
“Commissioner, in 2011 we saw different political parties employing different strategies in terms of employment of candidates for different political positions. A typical example is that it has been a well-known practice in the country that for one to become a councillor, he has to go and campaign; the same rule apply when you become a mayor. That same strategy changed when the same party decided who should become the mayor or councillor of the municipality; it became a conflict amongst members of the same political party where one person would have endured the majority from the society wanting to elevate that person to a position of being a leader of society in that particular locality, but the executive of the political party would take the decision that, regardless of the popularity of that individual, they would choose another person to appoint as a leader. The one who is popular will feel aggrieved, and then the fights will start.” said Mkhwanazi
He adds that former KZN Premier Willies Mchunu established a committee that would investigate the issue around the killing of politicians in the province, but the work of that group still did not bear any fruit. Mkhwanazi further explains that this saw former Police Minister Bheki Cele in 2018 chairing an inter-ministerial committee to deal with political killings in the country as the scourge continued to plague provinces such as KZN and Gauteng. He says over the years the teams that have worked on political killing cases have lacked strategy and have had a poor conviction rate.
Mkhwanazi, when unpacking on the journey of the PKTT, started his testimony by mentioning the murder case of Armand Swart, who was gunned down 23 times in Vereeniging, south of Gauteng, in April 2024. Swart was an engineer at the time of his death, and he was mistaken for another employee who was a whistleblower of corruption on a contract at Transet. He told the commission that some information was omitted from Swart’s murder, among other red flags.
“What we understand is that, subsequent to that shooting, which involved the Transet contract, it seems to have involved organised crime, and to some degree it had involved police corruption, which had posed a risk to the investigating team dealing with that incident. I was advised that the organised crime unit which had taken over that investigation was operating under the leadership of Deputy Provincial Commissioner Major General Khumalo,” said Mkhwanazi.
He adds that this investigation led to the Gauteng counterintelligence operations where General Khumalo sought assistance from him, and he approved the deployment of 10 officers. Fast-forward to January 2, 2025; Mkhwanazi says he received a text message on WhatsApp.
from a friend who shared a letter signed by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, which was an alert that the PKTT was being de-established with immediate effect. Chairperson Madlanga asked Mkhwanazi whether Mchunu had the powers to do so, and he replied, ‘No.’
Mkhwanazi adds that the minister’s letter stated that the reason behind the disbandment of the task team was that it is invaluable. The PC was then asked by Advocate Baloyi SC whether Mchunu was ever briefed prior to him making this decision about the work done by the PKTT, and he told the commission the minister was never briefed specifically about the task team but about the overall work done at SAPS in KZN and the issues they were facing, going as far as extending an invite to the minister to visit the province for oversight. Mkhwanazi continues to add that after verifying the letter he had received from the friend, he contacted his boss National Police Commissioner Fanie Masemola, to engage the minister on why he should not de-establish the PKTT, which again did not bear any fruit. He adds that he then decided to approach the minister himself to seek an audience on the matter.
“At the time I received the letter, the National Commissioner was on leave; that troubled me because I find it odd that you cannot have a minister writing a letter to the National Commissioner that has such content and these allegations if the minister had not discussed this with the National Commissioner before. Perhaps he’s just formalising the communication he had with the National Commissioner; hence, I asked him about the letter, to which he replied that he did not have the opportunity to consider the contents of the letter but had nothing to do with the disbandment of the PKTT, and the Minister had not sought his advice before taking this decision.” – Mkhwanazi
Mkhwanazi then proceeded to explain that his attempts to finally meet the minister failed because Mchunu promised to engage the PC, but that meeting never happened till today. His next move was approaching Parliament Police Portfolio Committee Chairperson Ian Cameron to invite him to the sitting to push the envelope, advising the overturn of the decision, but that hit a dead end too.
‘It cannot be correct that one minister takes a decision without being part of a collective; even so, the decision taken is operational, whereas the IMC at the beginning did not participate in the formation of the team; it was the National Commissioner that signed off on the task team that was my concern,’ says Mkhwanazi as he explains his attempts to also have the President’s response to this decision, which also failed.
This led Mkhwanazi to express his suspicion of external persons influencing Mchunu’s decision to disband the PKTT: “I strongly suspected that someone thought the 10 members of the PKTT were responsible for the investigations in Gauteng towards the criminal.”
Syndicates that involve senior police officers at the head office as well as the senior politicians and their associates.” said Mkhwanazi
On evidence of the above, Mkhwanazi says he has evidence on record to support his conclusion on Mchunu’s involvement in criminal syndicates. He adds that his colleagues who’ve received threats in the police force who are part of the investigating teams in these criminal syndicate cases will be part of the witnesses who will bring more evidence. “To some degree, the associates, as I referred to in this paragraph, are associates of the minister, which then draws me to my conclusion that the minister is involved in these criminal syndicates.”- Mkhwanazi
On Thursday, the Madlanga commission will focus on the 121 dockets of the PKTT and link suspended Deputy National Commissioner for Crime Detection Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya to this mess.
