Police minister Senzo Mchunu disbanded the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team to prevent it from probing criminal cartels with links to SA Police Service (SAPS) top brass, police national commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola has testified.
“There was no other motive but to prevent the investigation against the cartels in Gauteng that were involved in murder, drugs, and so on,” he said.
Masemola, during his testimony at the Madlanga commission on Tuesday, accused his boss of protecting criminal syndicates in his decision to disband the team on December 31 2024.
His testimony revealed a breakdown of the relationship between the executive and the police top brass, a situation that could result in poor policing services.
Mchunu, who is expected to appear before the commission, will have to defend himself against Masemola’s allegations backing those of the commission’s star witness, KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi a week earlier.
Masemola pinned his allegations on an analysis of the attempted murder accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s phone records.
He told the commission the evidence would be presented by crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo.
“The phone records of Matlala show there was a plan to disband the political killings task team to prevent it from doing its work. The investigators will come with recordings to indicate there were discussions about this team’s lifespan that it should be disbanded,” he said.
He listed his deputy, Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, the minister, Brown Mogotsi, an associate of the minister, and Matlala as people behind the disbanding of the task team.
While Masemola was adamant Mchunu disbanded the team to protect cartels, he told the commission the minister was the one who sounded the alarm on irregularities regarding Medicare and Medicare24 tenders with the police.
The companies providing services to the police were linked to Matlala. A week before he issued the directive to disband the team, the minister asked Masemola to probe the performance of the tender.
“I wonder whether at the time of triggering the investigation, the minister was aware that Brown Mogotsi and Matlala were associates.”
The minister has denied knowing Matlala but confirmed that Mogotsi was his “comrade”. The national commissioner said the phone records show Matlala and Mogotsi referred to the tender, flagged by the minister, as that of the “funder”.
Mkhwanazi testified Matlala paid for the costs of the minister’s guests at the January 8 ANC conference in Cape Town. This was also traced to Mogotsi and Matlala’s chats.
The national commissioner said trouble for the task team started after he asked Khumalo in 2024 to call the KwaZulu-Natal team to travel to Gauteng and help with investigations after a whistle-blower told him Sibiya was “close friends” with Matlala.
The whistle-blower told Masemolathat Matlala was technically his deputy because he had a say on police operational matters.
The allegations by the whistle-blower remain under investigation. Matlala was arrested after the task team and Gauteng investigators raided his house in December.
Masemola also testified Mchunu told him President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed with the disbandment of the task team.
“The minister stated that he did not understand why we were so adamant that the PKTT [task team] must not be disbanded. He said the president was in agreement that the PKTT be disbanded.”
Mchunu’s disbanding of the political task team is a crucial part of the commission’s probe of Mkhwanazi’s allegations of criminal syndicate infiltration of the justice cluster.
Commission hearings continue on Thursday, with a third witness expected to take the stand.
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