SAPS acting deputy national commissioner of police for crime detection Lt-Gen Hilda Senthumule told the Madlanga Commission that police minister Senzo Mchunu told police executives President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed with his decision to disband the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) political killings task team.
Senthumule revealed this on Friday at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System taking place in Pretoria.
She is also the SAPS divisional commissioner of detective and forensic services.
Top brass meetingÂ
Senthumule said there was a meeting she was a part of in Cape Town on March 27 which had in attendance Mchunu, national commissioner of police Gen Fannie Masemola, suspended deputy national commissioner of police for crime detection Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, SAPS national head of crime intelligence Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo, and deputy national commissioner of police for policing Lt-Gen Tebello Mosikili, among others.
Senthumule said the case dockets of the political killings task team and its disbandment were discussed and Mchunu reiterated his view that the task team must be disbanded immediately.
Sibiya supported the disbandment decision.
Mchunu, who is currently on special leave, sent a letter on December 31 2024 to Masemola instructing that the political killings task team be disbanded.
“During the meeting, the minister said the president agrees that the political killings task team must be disbanded. The minister then said he is no longer going to speak to us.
“He said he is only going to speak to the national commissioner going forward regarding the disbandment of the political killings task team. General Khumalo and I were upset when the minister said that,” said Senthumule.
Echoing previous witnessesÂ
Senthumule’s testimony corroborates what Masemola and Khumalo said when they were testifying before the commission in September about Mchunu saying Ramaphosa was in agreement with the disbandment of the PKTT.
In April, 121 case dockets of the political killings task team were removed from KZN and taken to Sibiya’s SAPS head office in Pretoria as per his instruction. This was done without the knowledge of KZN police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
The case dockets were later returned to in KZN in August.
Senthumule said Mkhwanazi’s bombshell media briefing on July 6 was a “game changer” because “it painted a picture of a South African Police Service not in a good standing”.
Senthumule concluded her testimony on Friday.
Her testimony was led by one of the commission’s evidence leaders Adv Thabang Pooe.
The commission, which is chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, is sitting at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria.
The commission resumes on Monday at 9:30am.
Quick backgroundÂ
In his media briefing on July 6, Mkhwanazi said the KZN political killings task team unmasked a criminal syndicate in Gauteng consisting of senior politicians, law enforcement officers including the police, metro police officers, correctional service officials, prosecutors, magistrates and judges in Gauteng.
He said the aforementioned were in the pockets of drug cartels and businesspeople in Gauteng.
