Former Police Minister says it was not up to Mchunu to disband the Political Killings Task Team

Former Minister of Police and National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, Bheki Cele, has told Parliament that it was not within Senzo Mchunu’s authority to disband the Political Killings Task Team.

“I will not conclude whether the decision was illegal or not. Still, procedurally, I do not agree with it,” Cele told the ad hoc committee investigating Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s allegations.

The PKTT, launched in July 2018, a few months after Cele was appointed Minister of Police, is an ad hoc, interdisciplinary unit within the SAPS tasked with investigating political killings.

It initially only operated within the bounds of KZN. However, over time, its success led to an expansion of operations.

It expanded to the Eastern Cape and a collaboration with the Gauteng Organised Crime Unit on one of its investigations into the criminal underworld.

Whether Mchunu’s directive to disband the unit at the end of 2024 was unlawful, occupied large part of Mkhwanazi’s testimony, as well as the rest of the witnesses who have appeared before Parliament.

Independent crime analyst David Bruce notes that the boundary between operations and policy can become blurred as the Constitution permits the minister to issues directives to the National Commissioner.

Therefore, he argues that the question is whether Mchunu’s directive constituted inappropriate interference and if his motives to disband the team were improper.

In July, Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner, alleged that Mchunu had disbanded the PKTT to obstruct an investigation into criminal networks.

Mchunu denied this and argued that he had done so because it had become redundant, did not fit into the new SAPS structure, had a temporary mandate, and that its funding could have been used elsewhere during his testimony.

However, Cele told Parliament that because the PKTT was established by the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) under the leadership of the President, only the IMC could disestablish it.

The former minister explained the technical aspects regarding the IMC’s role in overseeing the PKTT, saying that he had heard in the proceedings that “no IMC was established under the seventh administration.”

“The IMC consists of ministries that form the multi-disciplinary team, not the ministers who may change with each administration. The IMC, therefore, continued to exist even under the seventh administration,” he said.

“The Minister of Police, therefore, had to consult the IMC, which had established the PKTT, before deciding to disband it.”

This would have meant consulting the departments that form part of the IMC’s steering committee, which had oversight over the PKTT.

Cele added that the matter could also have been discussed with the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster, which is co-chaired by the Minister of Police and the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development.

He then began to scrutinise Mchunu’s letter, written to the National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola, instructing him to disband the PKTT immediately.

Cele referred to the section where Mchunu instructed Masemola to provide him with a report on the unit by 20 January.

“If it were me, I would have said, ‘Give me the report on the 20th,’ and armed with the report, I would then make a decision,” he said.

“But to dismantle and then want the report, what is the report for then? The decision has already been made.”

Mary de Haas’ letter

Bruce says that if Mchunu had reasonable justification for disbanding the PKTT, it may have originated from his own knowledge or from a letter written to him by Mary de Haas.

De Haas is a KwaZulu-Natal-based academic and violence monitor who advocated for the disbandment of the unit for some time.

In an open letter addressed to Mchunu, De Haas appealed to Mchunu to disband the PKTT, citing allegations of political manipulation, malicious arrest, and prosecution of law enforcement officials who refused to partake in improper investigations.

However, De Haas has denied that she encouraged Mchunu to issue the directive.

“I sent a letter both to the parliamentary portfolio committee and to the minister, and I asked for an inquiry, and I said that I believed it should be disbanded because I had horror stories, I had case studies,” she told Newzroom Afrika.

“What I said may have influenced the minister, but he wouldn’t have done it because I had asked.”

During his testimony, Cele made reference to the letter, noting similarities between it and the one written by Mchunu issuing the directive to disband the PKTT.

“My take is that I see De Haas as having played a major role in driving the disestablishment of the PKTT,” Cele said.

Ramaphosa agreed with me – Mchunu

During his testimony on 17 October, Mchunu told Parliament that President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed with his directive to disband the PKTT.

“I briefed the President on the disbanding of the PKTT, and he agreed with the briefing,” he said.

“The answer in the affidavit is that I briefed the President, and he agreed with the briefing that I gave him,” Mchunu replied.

However, he suggested that he had not furnished the President with his reasoning for issuing the directive.

The committee’s evidence leader, Advocate Norman Arendse, Senior Counsel, then questioned whether Ramaphosa could have agreed with the decision following such a short briefing.

Mchunu said that he was unable to recall how long the meeting lasted or when exactly it took place.

MPs then argued that it was pertinent that Mchunu clarify whether Ramaphosa had, in fact, agreed with Mchunu’s briefing.

“This is going to be a serious issue. Did the President agree to the disbandment of the PKTT?” Malema asked Mchunu.

“The answer in the affidavit is that I briefed the President, and he agreed with the briefing that I gave him,” Mchunu replied.

The committee’s chair, Soviet Lekgotla, asked him to confirm that the answer to his question was yes, to which he responded, “Yes, as in the affidavit.”