The overall murder rate in KwaZulu-Natal has been rising despite the success of the political killings task team (PKTT).
This was revealed in parliament by senior researcher at the Dullah Omar Institute, Dr Jean Redpath, who was giving testimony before the Ad Hoc committee investigating allegations of political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system.
The committee was birthed by the fallout from Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s directive that the (PKTT) be shut down. Mchunu has seen been put on special leave.
Murder rate outside PKTT rose sharply
Redpath told the committee that the concentration of resources to the PKTT, which has a specific and “narrow” mandate, had led to the murder rate outside that which is politically motivated rising.
She revealed that the increase in the murder rate in KZN was in fact more than double the national murder rate. This should raise tough questions about the necessity and effectivity of the PTKK, which operates in that province.
This view split the committee members in half. The pro-Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi Umkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP) was angered, while the anti-Mkhwanazi Patriotic Alliance was in a good mood over these news.
Redpath revealed that more than half a billion rands had been spent on the PKTT over the past six years. This is excluding salaries of those who are part of the task team.
Wasted expenditure on the task team
This money, she said, would have ordinarily been directed to the South African Police Service (SAPS). It would have been used in upskilling and resourcing detectives to solve more complex crimes. And this would have led to higher conviction rate and, hopefully, reduced crime rate.
“The Committee’s attention is drawn to the annexures to (national police commissioner) General Fannie Masemola’s statements which were tabled at the Madlanga Commission. These annexures show the combined financial authorisations over time for the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) in relation to accommodation, overtime, daily stipends and the like, which when combined with the initial 30 vehicles allocated to it as well as additional vehicles subsequently requested, amounts to some R460-million or close to half a billion, excluding the salaries of the persons so allocated,” said Redpath.
“The committee is urged to establish to what end the voted expenditure of R8.6-billion in the Police Vote is earmarked and spent. And whether task team funding in general takes place from this Vote. And if so, how many task teams are currently so funded. Whether the funds for the PKTT, and other task teams, are drawn from the Police Vote, the SSA Vote, or from emergency funding.
“There have been blanket claims of ‘excellent’ performance of the PKTT. Ultimately,
however, given the extent of funding, the utility of the PKTT must be judged not in isolation
but by the extent to which it succeeded not only in securing convictions, but convictions
which had the result of encouraging a broader climate of safety in the province,” she went on.
Worsening trend in violence and murder
“The PKTT, although securing some convictions, has been associated with a
worsening trend in violence and murder in the province. During the life of the PKTT, the
number of murders in the province increased from around 4, 395 in 2018/19 to 6, 947 by
2022/23. A concerning 58% increase, compared to the rest of the country which
‘only’ increased 24%.”
This did not go down well with MKP leader in the committee Sibonelo Nomvalo, who grilled Redpath on this.
Nomvalo said the rise in the overall killings rate in KZN had nothing to do with the existence or work of the PKTT.
If anything, he charged, Redpath was conflating two separate issues to cleverly support her view that the PKTT was not effective.
“My thing is that you are making an assessment on the performance of the PKTT. And in your assessment you are using wrong figures,” Nomvalo was on the offensive.
MKP disputes high murder link to PKTT
“The PKTT must be assessed in line with its mandate. You cannot assess them using a general statistic which includes other murders which were not politically motivated.
“I think what you have done is wrong. You have misled this committee because the numbers you have put here are not true. Because people who died because of political killings are not 4, 000 in KZN. And they never increase by 2, 000 and something from 2017 to 2022. You wrote these numbers under heading that says ‘performance of the task team’ so you cannot generalise.”
Redpath disagreed with Nomvalo’s view. “I am not criticising the PKTT, I am criticising the prioritisation of it over other policing functions,” she said. And the two were at each other’s throats until the intervention of committee chairperson Soviet Lekganyane.
This was before Nomvalo told Redpath that “you are wrong, and this presentation is not truthful”. To which she said she did not see the need to continue engaging a member who is hellbent on their preconceived narrative about the PKTT.
PA welcomes findings
Later on PA’s Ashley Sauls was Redpath’s biggest cheerleader. He said she must accept to be attacked for exposing shortcomings of a popular Mkhwanazi. The chief defender of the PKTT.
“My understanding is that you are saying you have the provincial commissioner (Mkhwanazi) who is in charge of the PKTT. And the same provincial commissioner is in charge of the province’s SAPS. And what you have is that a huge amount of government money is given to a unit… But in the same province the general murder rate is factual,” said Sauls.
“The political killings are dropping but the general murder rate, which he (Mkhwanazi) is responsible for constitutionally to keep the province safe, that is increasing. But there is less money given to the province and more money to the PKTT.”
