South Africa’s top brave cop Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi took the stand and told it all at the Madlanga Commission in Tshwane on Wednesday.
The Commission has been established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to ascertain whether there criminal justice system in South Africa has been captured by criminals or not.
Mkhwanazi said it raises questions for Police Minister Senzo Mchunu to disband the Political Killings Task Team unilaterally and cute the fact that the task team doesn’t add any value.
He insisted that the Political Killings Task Team had demonstrated beyond doubt that it had carried out its mandate; namely to prevent crime, investigate crime and bring perpetrators to book.
“I do not understand the lack of value that Minister Senzo Mchunu was referring to when he disbanded the Political Killings Task Team,” enthused Mkhwanazi.
“I am not sure whether the Minister wasn’t privy or not to the success and achievements of the Political Killings Task Team and perhaps this is something that the Commission will find out as it has the opportunity to ask questions in this regard,” said Mkhwanazi.
“With the statistics that we have it can therefore not be justifiable to say the team does not add any value to the work of the police in the country because judging by the success rate of the team it is clear that they (team) even selflessly went beyond the scope of their mandate when required to do so by also tackling the issue of the killings of traditional leaders,” he said.
He pointed out that members of the task team sacrificed themselves and have spent many hours away from their homes for many years now and that the National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola as well as President Cyril Ramaphosa were aware of this sacrifice and appreciated it very much.
“Now for Minister Mchunu to come and say the task team doesn’t add any value is bizarre, to say the least,” he said.
He explained that he annually advocated for the continuation of the task team based on its success rate by submitting reports that indicate the good performance of the task team and the outstanding work that still has to be done.
“Before taking the decision to disband the task team, Minister Mchunu should have asked his office to furnish him with reports indicating its performance and would have first engaged the president as well as those in charge of the task team instead of resorting to the unilateral decision that he took,” explained Mkhwanazi.
“I must say that Minister Mchunu can’t justify why he reached the decision to disband the task team,” lamented Mkhwanazi.
Regarding the 121 case dockets that were confiscated from Kwa Zulu Natal, Mkhwanazi said the decision was apparently taken by Deputy Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, who said he was acting upon instructions from Minister Senzo Mchunu.
Mkhwanazi indicated that the established procedure regarding case dockets is that once they have been investigated and work has been finalised on them, they must be taken back to the police station where they were originally registered but Sibiya gave instructions that the dockets must be taken to his office in Pretoria.
He added that even dockets which are still under investigation and work on them has not been finalised must be taken back to the police station where they were originally registered if needs be.
He also revealed that Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola indicated to him in an affidavit that he had never instructed Shadrack Sibiya to confiscate the 121 dockets and take them to his office in Pretoria.
He said families of the victims of political killings started making enquiries and submitting complaints regarding the status of investigations of the dockets and it turned out that all investigations into the dockets had stopped once Shadrack Sibiya had taken them to his office in Pretoria.
Be that as it may, Mkhwanazi said once the dockets were returned to KwaZulu Natal the police started effecting arrests within a week because the dockets were already at an advance stage that necessitated the arrest of suspects before they were taken to Pretoria.