By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola has wrapped up his testimony before Parliament’s ad hoc committee probing allegations of corruption within the criminal justice system.
Masemola returned to Parliament to share his closing submission and respond to allegations against him before the committee.
He was questioned about the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) and how he opposed its immediate disbandment.
The suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu issued a directive through a letter dated December 31, 2024, to disband the KZN Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
Mchunu justified this as a budget-saving move due to high expenditure (approx. R35 million) since 2018, claiming he acted without influence, despite controversy surrounding the decision.
Masemola said the disbandment was not about KZN political killing investigations but more about Gauteng investigations involving cartels.
Masemola said the objective of the disbandment was to stop the operations of the Gauteng crime intelligence investigations, which were closing in on businessperson and alleged leader of the Big Five cartel, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
“It is still my evidence that the minister never consulted with me about the directive or even before he issued the directive. I can add that I was with the minister for most of that week,” said Masemola.
“Still I stand by what I said; at no stage did he hint or indicate there’s this imminent disbandment of the PKTT,” he said.
There had been ample opportunity to discuss the matter, especially the urgent disbandment instructions, Masemola said.
He said that in a virtual meeting in December 2024, Mchunu had raised concerns about Matlala’s controversial R360 million police healthcare contract with Medicare24 and had never raised concerns about the political killings task team, which was investigating Matlala.
Masemola had cancelled the contract in April 2025 after reports about complaints concerning poor Medicare24 service delivery.
He said that when he had received Mchunu’s disbandment letter, he had briefly read it as he thought it was not a legitimate document. Once confirmed, he had requested departments to write reports based on the directive.
Masemola has previously testified before the ad hoc committee and Madlanga Commission which is investigating similar allegations, that he had advocated for a gradual wind-down of operations instead of an immediate shut down if disbandment was unavoidable.
He said he had received a letter from deputy national police commissioner for crime detection Shadrack Sibiya who had instructed the removal of 121 dockets from the task team as part of Mchunu’s disbandment order.
“I engaged General Sibiya in terms of how I would want to approach the matter, which I said: “I’m not going to do it as an immediate disbandment. If … we do it, we should wind down the team instead of doing it abruptly,” he said.
Sibiya had told him the task team would be disbanded in a similar way to how the Scorpions had been disbanded as he had been a member, adding that dockets had been taken from the officers.
Masemola also told the Ad Hoc Committee of his several attempts to ask Mchunu for his reasons to disband the PKTT, but the minister kept requesting progress reports and presentations to be made at meetings.
Referring to one meeting in February, Masemola said Mchunu had indicated that one of the reasons was that there were no political killings.
“Political killings were pre-1994 and for now, there were just killings, “he said when quoting the suspended minister.
Masemola had subsequently met President Cyril Ramaphosa in person to brief him on the events.
“It was an arranged meeting which I requested from the president. The agenda was to talk basically about the disbandment of the PKTT, where I alerted him that there’s this thing that is happening, the PKTT was being disbanded and we don’t know why,” he said.
Ramaphosa had seemed surprised and stated that he would talk to Mchunu, said Masemola.
Addressing concerns over leadership credentials, Masemola dismissed claims that Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo lacked security clearances.
He confirmed they are cleared, noting that the administrative process can sometimes be lengthy, leading to temporary gaps in documentation for senior officials.