National police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola has accused his boss, police minister Senzo Mchunu of “encroaching” on his legal powers when the minister issued a directive for the immediate disbandment of the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team.
He said Mchunu did not engage him about the disbandment of the team before issuing the directive on December 31 2024, which was Masemola’s second day of leave.
The national commissioner said the decision by the minister encroached on operational and administration matters of the SA Police Service (SAPS).
“The political task team works at a lower level under a provincial commissioner. If [Mchunu] ever found anything with the task team, he could say, ‘That task team, I think you need to disband it,’ and we can engage,” said Masemola.
“To go further to say disband, [disband] ‘now, now’ that is encroachment into the mandate of the national commissioner in terms of performance of my duty,” he said.
Masemola relied on section 207 of the constitution, which stipulates that “the national commissioner of the police service, to control and manage the police service”.
He is the second witness to take the stand at the commission, established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to investigate allegations of criminality, political interference and corruption within SA’s criminal justice system.
The star witness, his KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, spent three days on the stand last week giving more details about allegations he made at an explosive media briefing in July.
Mchunu’s disbanding of the political task team is a crucial part of the commission’s probe following allegations by Mkhwanazi that the minister was “influenced” to deactivate the task team.
Mkhwanazi said the team was disbanded when it was investigating a drug cartel in Gauteng with links to politicians, prosecutors and some members of the judiciary.
Earlier, the national commissioner said in court papers defending his decision to order deputy police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya to stay at home, that he did not support the decision to disband the task team because it was doing well. Despite his discontent, Mchunu’s directive was implemented.
He also said he was against an “immediate” disbandment of the team as directed by Mchunu, and proposed a gradual process instead.
Commission chair Mbuyiseli Madlanga quizzed Masemola on whether he would implement a minister’s directive on operational matters, which the national commissioner argues fall outside a minister's legal powers.
Masemola initially said “it would depend” on the nature of the minister’s directive.
When the question was asked again with emphasis that the directive by the minister was on operational functions, and if he would implement such, Masemola said he would not.
He said, though, that refusing to implement such a decision could be “career-limiting”.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.