By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has used an affidavit by organised crime accused Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala to back his assertions that the two of them do not know each other, as some accusations suggest. This is among several issues that were focused on in Parliament Ad Hoc Committee.
The committee is investigating allegations that criminals have infiltrated South Africa’s law enforcement, politics and private businesses.
Part of this scandal involves Mchunu facing accusations that he was in cahoots with individuals linked to Matlala, who was alleged to be financially supporting Mchunu’s political ambitions and who has been accused of being part of the Big Five members of a drug cartel.
Mchunu said KwaZulu-Natal’s Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi took “a much more confrontational line” to his directive and added that he was surprised when Mkhwanazi accused him of protecting drug cartels.
Mchunu started testifying at Parliament’s ad hoc committee last week and resumed on Tuesday when MPs also had a chance to question him.
Parliament’s ad hoc committee is running parallel to the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating the same accusations of criminal infiltration into law enforcement.
Both sets of hearings are in response to an explosive press conference that Mkhwanazi held a few months ago.
Mchunu maintained that there were several reasons that led to his decision to disband the PKTT, with budgetary constraints being one of them.
He said, however, his call was for all murders to be prioritised and not just those of political figures, as those have decreased while other murders have increased in KwaZulu-Natal.
He said the decrease in political killings was proof that the PKTT did add value to policing in the country. This was no longer the case.
“I’m saying so at the beginning, because at that time, you had a problem of killings, as the problem was identified, and it added value in the sense that there was a decrease in the cases, “said Mchunu.
Patriotic Alliance (PA) MP Ashley Sauls highlighted the task team’s extension and budget requests and how its staff complement decreased from 152 members to 110, whereas the budget increased from 57.1 million in the 2019/2020 financial year to 97.5 million in 2021/2022.
Mchunu said the team initially added value, but there had been a drop in cases over the years.
He said this year there had been one case of a political killing in March and seven cases altogether in 2024. The “monetary investment” and deployment of officers from other stations was “no longer optimising use of resources optimal to the value”, Mchunu added.
Don’t worry, minister, about your position. Don’t even worry about public opinion. Stand by your conviction. I look at your evidence. I compared it to what was given before. This is what I conclude. And whether the whole of South Africa hates me for doing it, I stand by my conviction.”
ActionSA MP Dereleen James asked Mchunu about his strategy behind disbanding the task team and the plans he had to combat crime in other areas.
“What plan did you have in place for the Cape Flats?” she asked.
Mchunu responded saying: “The plan that I had for the Cape Flats was that once we have a new division coming up — that we decided on last year, Operation and Response Service, we will then be able to optimally use all the units.”
The ANC’s Mdumiseni Ntuli asked Mchunu about the “recruitment of intelligence to strengthen a certain structure” in KwaZulu-Natal – there was reference to this in Mchunu’s affidavit to the parliamentary committee.
Mchunu responded: “I had picked up information that there were such intentions in KwaZulu-Natal. I won’t be able to talk in detail.”
He said this fitted into the context of a directive “which I was meant to discuss with the National [Police] Commissioner [Fannie Masemola]”.
It appeared that Mchunu was referring to a set of directives he issued on 31 December 2024, which had included freezing the filling of vacancies in the Crime Intelligence unit, and more controversially, to disband KwaZulu-Natal’s political killings task team (PKTT).
Throughout his testimony at the ad hoc committee, Mchunu has maintained that he has done nothing wrong and has not contributed to the country’s policing scandal.
Mchunu’s testimony in Parliament has often involved him giving long-winded answers to MPs, some of whom voiced concerns that his replies seemed to stray from what he had been asked.
Parliament’s ad hoc committee is expected to resume on Thursday.
Former police minister Bheki Cele is set to testify, marking the first time he officially and publicly discusses the policing crisis.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of Parliament.