Overview
- National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola reaffirmed that a 31 December 2024 letter from Senzo Mchunu ordered the immediate disbandment of the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team and said he was not consulted, calling the directive an encroachment on his operational mandate.
- Masemola testified that he met President Cyril Ramaphosa on 1 February about the instruction and later heard from Mchunu at a 27 March meeting that the president agreed with dissolving the unit, a claim Masemola said surprised him as the president never conveyed such an outcome.
- He defended the task team as effective, citing 612 total dockets since 2018 with 297 finalised, 125 still under investigation, 114 in court and 10 pending prosecutorial decision, and said the team will keep handling rolling cases while SAPS audits and retains dockets and coordinates with the NPA.
- Describing tensions with the minister, Masemola said Mchunu became visibly angry when the team linked suspects to a KZN councillor’s murder and ended a meeting abruptly after objecting to the unit taking over the docket.
- Masemola said deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya and Mchunu’s chief of staff Cedrick Nkabinde pressed for immediate disbandment and noted allegations relayed to him about Sibiya’s closeness to businessman Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala, adding that commissioners questioned him on why he partially complied with what he deemed an unlawful instruction.