The KwaZulu-Natal commissioner of police, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, has avoided answering questions regarding the investigation against him by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), referring all questions to the police watchdog.
He also avoided questions regarding the march that was mooted for Friday last week to support him amid the mind-boggling investigation.
The march was cancelled at the 11th hour, and its organisers said they had to call it off after learning that the IPID had dropped the investigation against Mkhwanazi.
Mkhwanazi is alleged to have defeated the ends of justice by preventing the arrest of a senior Westville Prison official accused of selling drugs.
The alleged incident took place in Richards Bay in 2023.
While speaking at a press conference about policing issues over the last nine months in Durban, Sunday World questioned Mkhwanazi about this investigation.
“Go and ask IPID. I did not plan the march; go and ask those who planned the march,” Mkhwanazi responded when he was asked about the investigation and the aborted march and whether he sanctioned it.
Over 4 000 people killed
On crime matters, he said people of KwaZulu–Natal are under siege from criminals, revealing that in the past nine months, over 4 000 people were violently killed.
He questioned those who claim that the province’s police are overbearing, pointing out that only 105 of them were killed in a gunfight with the police and that the suspected criminals killed some police officers in retaliation, depriving the public of much-needed services.
“When you look at the number of incidents of attacks on our citizens, it’s way above the attacks on the police. This figure that I am reporting – 4 278 people were killed in this province, 4 278 were killed in nine months, and only 105 criminals died. So it means criminals are at war with the citizens,” he said.
He also raised concerns about undocumented migrants, saying they are filling up SA Police Service facilities and those who are deported tend to come back to the country illegally.
In the last nine months, 11 268 were arrested.
“The only sad part, as we arrest them, [is that] Home Affairs finalises the process of taking them outside the country [deporting them], and some of them find their way back, and we start the whole process again.”
