A flurry of activity is unfolding in the top brass of the police relating directly to damning allegations by KwaZulu-Natal SAPS boss Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi almost two months ago.
The Madlanga commission tasked with probing those allegations hit its first pothole last week, delaying its September 1 commencement date due to the justice department’s incompetence.
It led to a rare, direct intervention by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had to step in to light a fire under his justice minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi.
As the furore over the delay consumed the national imagination, there were serious developments that could have a direct bearing on the commission’s ability to get to the truth of Mkhwanazi’s explosive allegations.
On July 6, Mkhwanazi alleged there was political interference in the work of the political killings task team, established in 2018, after it came to the aid of its colleagues in Gauteng in a probe that touched on a powerful, well-connected criminal syndicate. This syndicate involved senior police brass, MPs, metro police officers, correctional services officers and members of the judiciary.
Worse, the syndicate was being shielded by now-shifted police minister Senzo Mchunu.
Mkhwanazi’s motivation for going public was the move by the minister, which he alleges was done through former Gauteng crime boss Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, to disband the task team and demand that the 121 sensitive case dockets under investigation be handed over to Sibiya in March.
The KwaZulu-Natal crime boss at the time alleged that these crucial dockets sat dormant under lock and key at the SAPS headquarters in Pretoria, at Mchunu and Sibiya’s instruction.
Two things have now happened. First, these crucial, highly explosive dockets were handed back to the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team, at the behest of national police commissioner Fannie Masemola.
This prompted a swift rebuke from acting police minister Firoz Cachalia, egged on by Ramaphosa, over the movement of the dockets or evidence at the heart of the terms of reference of the Madlanga inquiry.
The second is the events about Sibiya — he was asked to “stay at home” after Mkhwanazi’s revelations in July, pending the outcome of the inquiry. He revealed in court last week that he had received notice from Masemola of an “intended suspension or pending transfer”.
Sibiya, according to News24, has been fighting in the high court to be able to return to his post, but his case has been delayed after he asked for the matter to be heard by a full bench of three judges.
Sibiya has maintained he was acting on Masemola’s instruction (who received the instruction from Mchunu) when he moved to disband the task team and retrieve its 121 dockets. However, Masemola says in court papers he did not issue the instruction due to concerns linked to Mkhwanazi’s allegations and that Sibiya had jumped ahead despite this.
What is crucial here is that potential evidence in the form of those 121 dockets is being moved about — when they stand at the heart of what Madlanga is meant to probe.
The big question is, why have those dockets not yet been secured as evidence by Madlanga’s investigators?
To explain: months before the commission of inquiry into the SA Revenue Service under retired judge Robert Nugent and the commission of inquiry into state capture chaired by former chief justice Raymond Zondo, investigators began collecting evidence — from documents to witness statements.
The work began months before the actual public hearings began. Madlanga announced his team of investigators exactly a month ago — they include a team of the sharpest legal minds in the country and impressive is an understatement when describing the list of evidence leaders, including advocates Mahlape Sello, Matthew Chaskalson, Adila Hassim, Lee Segeels-Ncube, Ofentse Motlhasedi and Thabang Pooe.
There is more than a wealth of experience here — with Chaskalson having served as an evidence leader for the Zondo commission, Sello on the Section 189 team probing Phala Phala and Hassim as the lead counsel in the Life Esidimeni arbitration.
It is difficult to understand why the 121 dockets had not yet been secured as evidence, with the commission poised to begin hearings this week, but for the administration hiccup.
Ramaphosa and Cachalia had both chastised Masemola for handing the dockets back to the political killings task team, yet neither thought to inquire of the commission why they had not moved to secure evidence crucial to their inquiry?
SA will have to be vigilant as the commission unfolds. It is clear there is already cause for concern as we connect the very few dots already in play.
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