By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Sunday, 13 July 2025, address the nation on developments arising from allegations against minister of police Senzo Mchunu and South African Police Service (SAPS) leadership.
Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the police commissioner in KwaZulu-Natal province, said Mchunu and senior national police officials in March seized dockets with information on political killings and effectively froze the probes.
He questioned the motives behind what he said were Mchunu’s plans to disband a task team established to look into the deaths.
Mchunu has denied the allegations of interfering with police and misleading parliament.
He said the “wild allegations” required “an urgent, thorough and transparent investigation, on a proper platform’.
“The Minister of Police will never allow his integrity, that of the Ministry or the SAPS at large to be undermined by insinuations made without evidence or due processes, from anyone, including Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi. We will be reviewing the Provincial Commissioner’s statements and consider appropriate action,” said Mchunu.
Ramaphosa was attending a BRICS summit in Brazil on Sunday, 6 July 2025, when Mkhwanazi outlined numerous allegations at a media briefing.
In a brief statement, presidency said, “The President undertook to attend to this development on his return from Brazil, in view of the implications for national security.
“President Ramaphosa has been seized with this matter in recent days and will, following various consultations, take the nation into his confidence at 19h00 on Sunday, 13 July 2025.”
Meanwhile the Democratic Alliance has laid a criminal complaint against Mchunu for allegedly lying and misleading Parliament about his alleged associate Brown Mogotsi.
In March, Mchunu told members of Parliament that he did not know Mogotsi and that the North West businessman was not an associate of his.
However, Mchunu admitted to knowing Brown “as a comrade” on Wednesday.
Speaking to the media outside Cape Town Central Police Station, DA’s deputy chief whip Baxolile Nodada accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of failing to take action.
“The president has not said anything since landing back in South Africa on Tuesday and has not taken any action. It’s a similar thing that he’s done nine days ago when he knew that Minister Nkabane lied to Parliament and took no action.
“So if the president is not going to take any action against ministers that serve in his cabinet to protect corruption, cadre deployment and ultimately people that are linked to criminal syndicates, the Democratic Alliance will take that action.
“The president cannot be quiet when there’s a massive crisis like this. Like I said, he landed on Tuesday. Everybody’s asking, where’s the president? Why is he saying nothing? Why is he not acting on people that are defrauding Parliament and lying to Parliament?
“He must act with the same vigour that he intended to act in fighting corruption to make sure that our state-owned run entities and ultimately the departments actually live up to the standards that they need to live up to. He can’t be silent.”
Nodada added that Mchunu’s admission is a clear violation of the law.
“So that means he deliberately lied to members of Parliament, which breaks Section 27 of the Powers and Privileges Act, which means that he deliberately misled Parliament for trying to hold him accountable.”
The MK Party has also opened a criminal case against Mchunu and Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya at Pretoria’s Brooklyn Police Station.