Like former president Jacob Zuma before him, Cyril Ramaphosa might end up appearing before the commission he established as his name and office have been mentioned in evidence led by two key witnesses.
Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the first witness to take the stand when the commission of inquiry into allegations of criminality, political interference and corruption in SA’s criminal justice system began last week, told commissioners of the presidency’s involvement in the creation of a stand-alone police team to stem the assassinations of executives at Richards Bay Minerals.
After spending 12 months failing to crack a spate of killings at the mining company and within its environs, Mkhwanazi in 2022 decided to withdraw the team he had deployed in the area specifically for that purpose.
“They ended up having success with RBM that had nothing to do with what they were sent there for. They became like a police unit for RBM,” Mkhwanazi told the commission chaired by retired former Constitutional Court justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and his fellow panellists, advocates Sandile Khumalo and Sesi Baloyi.
He said when he withdrew the team in 2022 his boss, national commissioner Fannie Masemola, called him and ordered him to redeploy the team to RBM.
“Little did I know this RBM has contacts at a higher level of our government. The commissioner [Masemola] said he received a complaint from the presidency [about the withdrawal],” said Mkhwanazi, whose allegations of capture in the criminal justice system at an explosive press conference in July led to the establishment of the commission by Ramaphosa.
The team was sent to join the special task force team and national intervention unit, which was deployed by SAPS head office, to investigate the RBM murders.
It will be interesting to find out who in the presidency made the complaint and why. And why a whole team of elite investigators was stationed at the company, in a town where numerous murders were occurring.
“The task force and the NIU are the fighting squad of the police. RBM had the privilege of getting an SAPS deployment to service only them, which was funded by the national office,” he said.
“I am sure the management of the police will come and explain what informed that decision,” Mkhwanazi said.
Earlier this month, Business Day’s sister publication the Sunday Times reported the task team was withdrawn from RBM. The withdrawal came five years after Mkhwanazi’s initial deployment in 2021.
Testifying at the commission on Tuesday, Masemola said there was nothing untoward about the deployment of the teams to RBM. He said the assassinations at RBM, from 2016-24, were of concern and the SAPS had to have a police operation focused on curbing the bloodbath.
While Mkhwanazi’s testimony spoke only of the presidency’s possible involvement, his boss, Masemola, the second witness to take the stand this week, spoke of a more direct link to the president.
The national police commissioner said his boss, police minister Senzo Mchunu, told him Ramaphosa agreed with the disbanding of the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team — a decision central to the establishment of the commission.
“The minister stated that he did not understand why we were so adamant the PKTT [task team] must not be disbanded. He said the president was in agreement that the PKTT be disbanded,” Masemola told the Madlanga commission on Tuesday.
Masemola said Mchunu made the remarks at a meeting he had with police management on March 27. The meeting took place after Masemola briefed the president on February 1 about Mchunu’s decision to disband the team without “any reasons”.
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.
Masemola though said he doubted Mchunu was telling the truth about Ramaphosa.
“I was quite taken aback by his revelations, since it was the president who, knowing about the effectiveness of the PKTT, had requested the PKTT to assist with Fort Hare University murder investigations,” he said.
“Moreover, the president, in our last briefing on the PKTT, was satisfied with the performance. Of course, it was [Mchunu] who said it; I do not know whether what he said [that the president agrees with the disbandment] is true or not.”
He said when he briefed the president on February 1, Ramaphosa was surprised that the team had been disbanded with no reasons given.
Mchunu is expected to take to the commission’s witness box at some point. Should he insist that the president supported the disbanding of the political killings task team, Ramaphosa should account for it.
If backed up by evidence, Ramaphosa will have to explain to the commission why, as leader of the executive arm of government, he supported his minister to take a decision that Masemola argues was an encroachment into operational matters.
He should also explain why, if he knew of Mchunu’s decision or intention to disband the task team, he did not stop him. Especially considering the “successes” the team had notched in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng.
The president’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told Business Day on Tuesday his office would not respond to evidence bit by bit.
“We are not going to respond to evidence in a piecemeal fashion. We will look at the entirety of the evidence delivered at the commission before deciding the manner and approach of our response,” Magwenya said.
Unisa political analyst Prof Dirk Kotze said the testimonies mentioning the president were yet to be tested, especially seeing that other witnesses, such as Mchunu, were still to testify.
He said depending on the evidence given, the president in the end might consider it necessary to respond or counter certain evidence.
Zuma’s involvement at the commission of inquiry into state capture chaired by then deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo has already created a precedent.
After attending a few sessions Zuma walked out on the commission, alleging bias. He refused several times to return to testify, prompting the commission to apply for an urgent court order compelling him to comply with its summons and provide evidence before it.
Zuma declined to oppose the application, and the Constitutional Court granted the order on January 28 2021 with a unanimous judgment.
However, Zuma violated the court’s order the next month by openly refusing to comply with a summons to appear before the commission, an act that saw the top court impose a 15-month prison sentence for contempt of court.
He was imprisoned on July 7 2021 but released a few days later on “health grounds”.
The Madlanga commission, which continues on Thursday, has not yet announced who the next witness will be after Masemola concluded his evidence on Tuesday. It stuck to its policy of not naming coming witnesses for security reasons.
Witnesses such as Mchunu, deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, former police minister Bheki Cele, crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo and members of the interministerial committee on political killings could still be asked to take the witness stand.
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