KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s second term was finalised on Friday night, but senior policing sources say the decision followed behind-the-scenes discussions about whether he could first cash out his pension before being reappointed – a move that will carry significant legal and political implications.
Police insiders told Sunday World that leading up to the renewal, queries were directed to SAPS finance officials about the availability of funds to process a pension payout for Mkhwanazi.
The enquiry, sources said, was met with confirmation that such funds existed but came with a caution that any process would have to comply strictly with applicable regulations.
At the centre of the debate was a key legal distinction: whether Mkhwanazi’s continued stay in office would be handled as a straightforward contract extension or as a termination followed by a fresh presidential reappointment after accessing pension benefits.
Under Section 207(3) of the Constitution, the national commissioner appoints a provincial commissioner “subject to the concurrence of the provincial executive”. Section 7(2) of the SAPS Act further empowers the national commissioner to extend the term on expiry after consulting the relevant premier.
According to a senior police source, National Commissioner Fannie Masemola does not have the authority to reappoint a provincial commissioner following retirement. “His powers are limited to extending the contract. If there is a pension payout and reappointment, that requires the president’s signature,” the source said.
Mkhwanazi referred questions to national police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe, who confirmed that the KZN police chief would serve a second term, describing it as a “reappointment for a five-year fixed-term contract”.
Mathe said: “The terms and conditions of the re-appointment is an employer-employee matter and we will not discuss it in the public domain”.
Critics of Mkhwanazi said the exploration of a pension payout may have been aimed at securing financial benefits ahead of a potential legal or political fallout. They point to ongoing criminal investigations against him.
“There are people who believe this was about securing his position and his benefits before any adverse findings,” said one source familiar with internal discussions.
The timing has also drawn comparisons with Masemola’s legal woes which this week manifested in a charge in connection with a controversial police tender linked to businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
Insiders suggest the pension option was explored as a precautionary measure in an increasingly volatile leadership environment within the SAPS.
KZN Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli confirmed over the weekend that all approvals had been secured for Mkhwanazi’s continued tenure.
Mkhwanazi, first appointed to the post in March 2021, is legally entitled to a second term under Section 7(1) of the South African Police Service Act 68 of 1995, which sets a fixed five-year term for provincial commissioners.
The delays in his appointment had fuelled political speculation that he may be managed out of his post in a manner reminiscent of Arthur Fraser.
In 2018, Fraser was moved from the helm of the State Security Agency to become national commissioner of correctional services – a lateral transfer widely interpreted as a strategic removal to the “wilderness” after he had become politically inconvenient.
“Fraser had access to inconvenient state secrets and could not simply be dumped, so he was sent to the wilderness,” a source familiar with the dynamics told Sunday World. The move allowed the presidency to neutralise a potential threat without triggering a direct rupture.
ANC insiders said Mkhwanazi did not do himself a favour when he recently in Parliament read an unsigned statement from an inmate linking incarcerated businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala to the Phala Phala scandal – which was seen by many as crossing a line.
He presented an eight-page handwritten prison letter to the committee, containing explosive allegations linking Matlala to the Phala Phala scandal that has dogged Ramaphosa for years.
The letter was authored by Jermaine Prim, a former cellmate of Matlala at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Facility. In it, Prim claimed that Matlala boasted about being “very close” to President Ramaphosa and was involved in transporting furniture, including couches, to the Phala Phala farm. The letter further alleged that Matlala worked with a nephew of the president on various government tenders, including a Thembisa Hospital tender.
Mkhwanazi was careful to frame the evidence within its legal limitations. He emphasised that the letter’s contents remain unverified hearsay, though he noted that some details aligned with existing police intelligence.
But the act of presenting the letter to Parliament – in public, on the record – was itself a political grenade. It placed the Phala Phala matter back in the parliamentary spotlight at a time when the presidency had hoped to move on.
Also, his bombshell press briefing last year in July ruffled feathers. “There are strong views in the ANC that Mkhwanazi should have consulted the president before the ambush press conference in July last year,” said an insider.
“That move was seen as undermining the president.”
- KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s second term was finalised on Friday night, but senior policing sources say the decision followed behind-the-scenes discussions about whether he could first cash out his pension before being reappointed – a move that will carry significant legal and political implications.
- Police insiders told Sunday World that leading up to the renewal, queries were directed to SAPS finance officials about the availability of funds to process a pension payout for Mkhwanazi.
- The enquiry, sources said, was met with confirmation that such funds existed but came with a caution that any process would have to comply strictly with applicable regulations.
- At the centre of the debate was a key legal distinction: whether Mkhwanazi’s continued stay in office would be handled as a straightforward contract extension or as a termination followed by a fresh presidential reappointment after accessing pension benefits.
- Under Section 207(3) of the Constitution, the national commissioner appoints a provincial commissioner “subject to the concurrence of the provincial executive”.
