By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South African Police Services (SAPS) National Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola appeared before Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee on Thursday, 09 October 2025.
The committee is investigating allegations made in by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
The committee was established to probe Mkhwanazi’s wide-ranging allegations of criminal infiltration, corruption, and political interference in the criminal justice system.
Masemola was the second witness after Mkhwanazi had spent two days in the witness seat.
Masemola made it clear that while the South African Police Service (SAPS) was experiencing challenges, it was not in crisis.
He said the challenges the SAPS was experiencing were due to various factors.
Masemola said that expectations on police officers had expanded beyond what they were mandated to do.
“Policing is quite under pressure, and unfortunately society looks for everything from the police,” he said.
Masemola referenced examples including that if a child was not attending school, the expectation was that the police would sort it out.
Another example Masemola made was that if a spouse was in a spat of sort, the police were called. Some of the matters officers were expected to deal with were at times better suited to other departments, including social development.
Summarising the broad expectations on police officers, Masemola said: “You don’t go into a McDonald’s and order a beer. With the South African Police Service, it’s like that.”
He was emphasising that demands on officers exceeded what they were trained to deal with.
Masemola explained that police resources were “not in abundance”, while the population was growing.
“We’re trying our best with what we have,” he said.
Meanwhile Cedric Nkabinde, chief of staff to Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, briefed the media in Sandton on Thursday, accusing Masemola of attempting to intimidate him ahead of his planned testimony at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system.
He said a group of 15 to 20 police officers, wearing balaclavas and carrying high-calibre rifles, showed up at his home on Wednesday evening.
“They entered my flat and they thought my brother was myself, and they demanded to search the flat without showing any warrant or any search warrant,” said Nkabinde.
“When [my] brother asked them to show a search warrant, they started to assault him with the firearm’s but. They started to assault him, thinking it was me, asking about where the search warrant was because they could not show the search warrant, and then they started to search my flat upside down until my brother had to produce his identity document to show that it was not me.”
Nkabinde said that after realising he was not in the home, the police officers inquired about his whereabouts.
“They started to ask my brother, ‘Do you see what is happening on TV?’ Then my brother said to them, ‘No, I hardly watch television’.”
“Then they demanded my brother take them to show where I was, and my brother said he thinks I’m at the nearest estate. Then they forced him against his will, they dragged him down from the third floor, they dragged him to the cars, assaulting him again, forcing him to go and show where I was after they finished searching the house. Then they went to the estate where I was, and unfortunately, they could not gain access.”
He said that when they took his brother back to the flat, they complained that they had come all the way from KwaZulu-Natal “for nothing”.
He alleges the same police officers showed up the next day at the home of Minister Mchunu.
Nkabinde said he contacted his lawyers as he feared for his life.
“Then my lawyers conducted or engaged an ad hoc committee in Parliament, which is sitting as we speak, to report this harassment and intimidation because I’m one of the witnesses in that process. Then, coincidentally, the National Commissioner is present today in the ad hoc committee, and the evidence leader had to engage the National Commissioner about what my lawyers related to them.
“The evidence leader came back to my lawyers and said, the national commissioner confirmed that, yes, indeed, he knows that those police officers with balaclavas, even though he never mentioned like that, I know those police, they were there to execute search and seizure warrants because they are looking to get our mobile phones and our laptops so that they can get evidence, they can start downloading them.”
He said he fears that evidence on their digital devices might be compromised if police seize them.
“We are preparing to go and present ourselves to an ad hoc committee, and while we are busy preparing, this harassment is starting, this intimidation is starting.