The arrest of crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo was meant to stall the work of the political killings task team, KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said on Thursday.
Khumalo, who managed the elite unit established by the government to investigate and combat the rise in high-profile assassinations, asked Mkhwanazi last year to release 10 members in KwaZulu-Natal to assist Gauteng investigators facing “grave danger” in the murder investigation of engineer Armand Swart.
Swart, an engineer, was shot 23 times in Vereeniging last year. His murder is linked to a whistle-blower report on a Transnet tender. Those arrested for his murder include former police officer Michael Tau and two others central to the task team’s investigations.
On June 26, Khumalo was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport on allegations of nepotism. His arrest followed that of crime intelligence CFO Maj-Gen Philani Lushaba on charges of perjury, corruption and defeating the ends of justice. They are both out on bail.
Mkhwanazi did not say where the order to have Khumalo arrested came from.
On Thursday in his second day on the witness stand at the commission of inquiry into criminality in the criminal justice system — commonly referred to as the Madlanga commission — Mkhwanazi said the arrests, especially that of Khumalo, were meant to disrupt and weaken the task team.
“When we see the disruption of the investigation of the Gauteng counterintelligence operations, we then begin to ask ourselves why this is the case. We have his arrest [Khumalo], and when it happens it literally means this project must stop,” Mkhwanazi said. “This investigation of this organised crime must stop immediately because there are people arrested.”
Khumalo was arrested by the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac). Mkhwanazi said there were members within Idac who used it as a “weapon” to disrupt the justice system.
“There is a good structure that deals with the state capture commission, and there is another structure that is malicious. It is used as a weapon to further destruct the criminal justice system operations,” he said.
His remarks come against the backdrop of NPA head Shamila Batohi’s remarks in June that the NPA was “infiltrated” as the prosecuting authority suffered from a low prosecution rate in high-profile cases. She later said she used an incorrect word to describe the challenges.
Mkhwanazi said there were efforts to stop the political task team from probing a drug cartel in Gauteng with connections to politicians, prosecutors and the judiciary. “All the efforts we are seeing there are a concerted effort to make sure Khumalo and whoever he is working with are frustrated with working on this [stopping the drug cartel],” he said.
In August, there were rumours of a pending arrest of national commissioner Fannie Masemola. Mkhwanazi said an analysis of phone records of attempted murder accused and businessman Vusimuzi Matlala showed that when Matlala was sent an article about Masemola’s arrest, he said it was “good, because my guy” would take over the SA Police Service (SAPS) reins.
In another text, Matlala was sent a job advert post for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) head, before Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya retired, and said the position was “already given” to suspended deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya.
The position has not yet been filled.
Mkhwanazi said the messages showed Matlala had great influence in the upper echelons of the SAPS.
The names of MPs Fadiel Adams of the National Coloured Congress and Dianne Kohler Barnard of the DA also featured on Thursday. Mkhwanazi accused Adams of having access to classified crime intelligence information and using it “recklessly”. Last November, Adams opened a case accusing the crime intelligence unit of abusing state funds in a secret service account.
Mkhwanazi said the allegation was false and part of a smear campaign to discredit the task team and its work. He challenged Adams to provide proof.
Sibiya, in his court papers, gave a glimpse of how much the SAPS budgets for the team. He said that between April 2024 and March 2025, the team used R94m. Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu disbanded the team because “it did not add value to SAPS operations”. Mkhwanazi disputed Mchunu’s reasons, saying he was “influenced” by outside forces.
Mchunu disbanded the team on December 31 2024. Mkhwanazi said this was a day after the team received a ballistic report on guns linked to high-profile murders. The report was compiled after the team arrested businessman Katiso “KT” Molefe for the murders of musicians and conducted a search and seizure at Matlala’s house. Matlala had a R360m police tender at the time.
Mkhwanazi told commission members that the task team would provide evidence of communication between the accused and associates of the minister, which would show Mchunu’s involvement.
MPs who have been mentioned by Mkhwanazi during the proceedings will be given an opportunity to defend themselves at the commission.
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