National police commissioner General Fannie Masemola on Tuesday laid bare how his several attempts to meet Senzo Mchunu, the Minister of Police, who is on special leave, before KZN police chief Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s famous July 6 press briefing fell flat.
Masemola returned to parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations of corruption, political interference, and capture of the criminal justice system made by Mkhwanazi in the now world-famous press briefing of last year.
According to Masemola, the explosive press briefing that blew the lid could have been averted if Mchunu had not been pushy with his agenda to disband the political killings task team (PKTT) by all means necessary.
Mchunu was so hellbent on sticking to his guns that he rejected a counterproposal by Masemola to “wind down” the PKTT instead of “immediately” shutting it down as directed by Mchunu in his controversial New Year’s Eve directive issued when Masemola was on leave.
But Masemola said Mchunu made matters worse when he shunned him for the whole of June 2025, when Masemola wanted to have his ear after he, Mkhwanazi, and Crime Intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo had built a narrative on what could have led to the contentious decision to immediately disband the PKTT.
Masemola confirmed that he, Mkhwanazi, and Khumalo came to the conclusion that the PKTT was targeted following the December 6, 2024, raid on alleged drug cartel member Vusi “Cat” Matlala’s home and the arrest of murder suspect Katiso Molefe on the same day.
The dots only connected in May, he said, after the trio were confronted by data mined from Matlala’s cellphone after being confused for the entire five months about the real motive of Mchunu to attempt to dissolve PKTT pronto.
After this discovery, which included WhatsApp texts by, among others, Mchunu, disgraced police political fixer Brown Mogotsi, and Matlala about the PKTT disbandment decision, Masemola attempted countless times to meet Mchunu to bring this to his attention.
However, by that time, Mchunu had already become frustrated with Masemola, Khumalo, and Mkhwanazi, whom he perceived as resisting his order to shut down the PKTT.
It was at this point that Masemola attempted to go to Mchunu’s boss instead, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who granted him the ear but did not have ample time, as he was en route to Brazil on an international working trip.
Masemola granted the permission
Mkhwanazi was losing patience and asked Masemola to brief the people of KZN about successes of the PKTT, which had not been done for the whole year since Mchunu became a police minister.
Masemola granted Mkhwanazi permission to speak about the PKTT, but the press briefing took a different direction and ended up covering all the matters Masemola wanted to brief Mchunu on and inform Ramaphosa about upon his return from Brazil.
“If Minister [Mchunu] did give me an ear all the time I wanted to see him, I would have presented to him, but he did not grant the meeting,” said Masemola to stunned ad hoc committee members.
“I met General Mkhwanazi and General Khumalo at the police college in Pretoria. We did not meet clandestinely; they briefed me. I went to brief the president [Ramaphosa], but he did not have time; he was going to Brazil.
“Mkhwanazi said he wants to talk about PKTT to the people of KZN. Yes, I authorised it; he asked to go and brief the people of KZN on the work of the PKTT but not on my report.
“He said he wanted to talk about PKTT, and when that happened, it overlapped into everything else,” Masemola continued.
Apparently, Mchunu only got to smell the coffee that snubbing Masemola the whole of June 2025 was a massive blunder on his part.
This is because, Masemola went on testifying, on July 7 at a scheduled meeting with Mchunu about other police matters, the minister at the end tried to give the national commissioner an ear.
At the time, the train had left the station, as Masemola told Mchunu: “What you saw in the press briefing, that is what I wanted to tell you, so it is too late.”
Masemola is now being grilled by members of the ad hoc committee on these revelations before officially concluding his testimony.
