Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu has accused national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola of withholding information regarding the disbandment of the political killings task team.
Mchunu made the accusation on Thursday while testifying before parliament’s ad hoc committee probing allegations of political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system.
According to Mchunu, in November last year Masemola said the task team was not a formal unit but a task team.
“The important part about what he said was that the intention of the task team was to evolve into a dedicated murder and robbery unit,” he said.
“The national commissioner withheld information from this committee. He was aware of a work study that was undertaken and signed by Gen [Khehla] Sitole, the former national commissioner, in June 2019,” he said.
“The work study disbanded the task team and resuscitated all the specialised units, including the murder and robbery unit.
“This occurred before I came into the position. Mine was to give effect to the work study outcomes.”
Mchunu said everyone was aware that the task team had a start and end date.
During his testimony this week, Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya — suspended deputy national commissioner for crime detection —told MPs that Masemola had been consulted about the disbandment of the political killings task team.
Sibiya also said Masemola had known since November 2024 that the task team was not meant to be a permanent unit.
“The national commissioner was consulted, along with all other senior managers, and he never actually showed any objection to the disbandment. As a result, the process started.”
However, last week Masemola told the committee that he had not been consulted about the disbandment before the decision was taken on December 31.
He said he had been on leave when colleagues shared the letter to disband the unit.
Evidence leader advocate Norman Arendse told Mchunu that they had asked for minutes of the meetings, but that the only minutes they had received were for November 1.
President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended Mchunu after allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi on July 6.
Mkhwanazi alleged that Mchunu had interfered in police investigations and issued a directive to disband the political killings task team, a decision that fell outside his mandate.
He is also alleged to have ties with corrupt businesspeople and to be protecting people linked to organised crime.
Frosty relationship
Taking the stand and defending himself officially for the first time since the allegations broke in July, Mchunu recounted a frosty relationship with the top brass soon after taking over the police portfolio in a cabinet reshuffle.
Mchunu, who was reshuffled from the water affairs & sanitation department, has also headed the education department and once headed the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government in his political career.
The minister painted a picture of an SAPS in conflict and in turmoil.
He told the committee he sought a meet‑and‑greet with senior SAPS leaders immediately after he was sworn in to the police portfolio. Initially the SAPS top brass were kind, he said: “They were open.”
But subsequent engagement revealed “other things” that required closer scrutiny, giving him the impression that the initial welcome he had received had been “superficial”.
While accepting ministerial responsibility for the portfolio, he also claimed that some material relevant to a key operational response were withheld from his office.
He said the task team was established to address a time‑bound operational problem and lacked permanent SAPS unit status.
“It was never part of SAPS’s organogram,” he said, adding the police periodically reviewed its organisational structure.
He agreed the task team was lawfully established and reported to an interministerial committee chaired by then minister Bheki Cele.
Lines of control
On institutional lines of control, another key issue of contention at the hearing thus far, Mchunu said the task team was multitiered, involving relevant parties at provincial and national levels.
Masemola and Mkhwanazi have accused the minister of overreach. The head of SAPS legal services, Maj-Gen Marga van Rooyen, also recently testified before the Madlanga commission — a parallel investigation into the capture of the criminal justice system — that the minister had overreached into operational matters of the police.
Mchunu told the committee the president expected ministers to implement his directives and report back to him.
He said he had become aware of the distinction between SAPS units and task teams toward the end of the year.
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