Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, currently on special leave, has made startling claims in his 75-page witness statement to the Parliamentary Ad Hoc committee probing the issue of political killings.
According to Mchunu, the political killings task team (PKTT) has been operating illegally after 2022. A development he says compelled him to issue a directive to disband it.
Legally empowered to disband task team
In his submission, which has been seen by Sunday World, Mchunu states that he is constitutionally and legally empowered, under Section 24 of the Police Services Act, to issue the directive.
He set out that the responsibility to ensure the continuation of the task team depends on consultations between the police commissioner and police minister. However, a final decision was not made in this regard.
“I was also empowered in terms of Section 24 of the Police Services Act to issue the directive in the manner in which I did. Further to this, I wish to reiterate that the National Political Killings Task Team, post-2022, operated illegally. And its continued existence was irregular,” Mchunu stated.
Extension approvals never granted
He further claimed that both General Fannie Masemola and KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi gave evidence before the committee but failed to show that required extensions had been granted after the resignation of former National Commissioner General Khehla Sitole.
According to Mchunu, such extensions were necessary to justify the team’s operating costs. Also to avoid violations of the Public Finance Management Act. He emphasises that each financial year required formal approval to extend the task team’s existence. Approvals that, according to Mchunu, were not obtained.
“The NPKTT does not appear in the 2024 SAPS-approved organisational structure. To date, both at national and provincial levels, the SAPS organisational structure for 2025/26–2029/30, approved on 15 May 2025, again makes no reference to any NPKTT,” the statement continues.
Mchunu also referred to two internal SAPS work studies that addressed the creation and structuring of specialised units. The first study recommended the establishment of a Murder and Robbery Unit. Under which investigations into political murders and attempted murders would fall. Other specialised units included anti-gang, taxi violence, and cold case investigation units.
Work study report
He claimed that following the approval of this work study by General Sitole on June 26 2019, the NPKTT ceased to exist in principle.
“The work study report effectively disestablished the NPKTT. It established a single Murder and Robbery Unit. One that would carry out the various functions of the different task teams under one umbrella,” Mchunu said.
A second work study was conducted in 2024 to evaluate the implementation status of these specialised units. It reiterated the need to transfer NPKTT functions to the Murder and Robbery Unit. And it aimed to centralise efforts and avoid operational silos lacking coordination or budgetary oversight.
“Interestingly, [suspended deputy police commissioner] General [Shadrack] Sibiya bemoaned the failure to implement the previous work studies that had been conducted. It is common knowledge that as at September 2024, the NPKTT was still fully operational and had not been incorporated into the Murder and Robbery Unit, as recommended by at least two work studies,” Mchunu adds.
He also criticises General Masemola for delays. He stated that he only signed off on the second work study a full year after it was submitted to him.
Masemola task team surprise ‘was an act’
“General Masemola took an entire year to say this one line. If the implementation of the units was to be expedited, how can the decision to disband be surprising and unexpected? In fact, just a year after the Task Team was formed, SAPS senior management wished to disband it in 2019. It is therefore disingenuous of General Masemola to claim that the decision to disband was sudden and unexpected,” the statement concludes.
The Ad Hoc Committee continues its work to determine accountability and policy compliance surrounding the formation, continuation, and eventual disbandment of the NPKTT amid rising political violence in key provinces. Mchunu is expected to deliver his testimony tomorrow.
