Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia has criticised Fannie Masemola, the national police commissioner, for publicly announcing that 121 dockets from the political killings task team (PKTT) had been returned to KwaZulu-Natal.
The dockets had been held in the office of suspended deputy national commissioner Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya as part of a process to disband the PKTT.
The attempted disbandment followed a directive on New Year’s Eve from Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, who has since been placed on special leave pending the outcome of investigations against him.
Mchunu faces allegations of interfering in police work and disbanding the team to supposedly shield criminals.
Cachalia told the parliamentary ad hoc committee on Wednesday that he had met with Masemola to discuss the PKTT issue and was still waiting for a report on the matter when Masemola made the public announcement about the dockets.
“It was inappropriate for the national commissioner to make that public statement before providing me with the report that I asked for after several weeks of trying to understand clearly from him what the position was,” said Cachalia.
“That was inconsistent with my understanding of what he had conveyed to me, that the team had been disbanded and that the dockets were being transferred according to this disestablishment plan.”
Working relationship
He added that after hearing Masemola’s statement, he became concerned that the issue surrounding the dockets also fell within the terms of reference for the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System.
The commission, chaired by retired Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, runs concurrently with the ad hoc committee to investigate the allegations following the explosive July 6 statement by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Cachalia said he later met with Masemola to discuss the matter and to strengthen the working relationship between them as minister and national commissioner.
This meeting, according to him, has improved the working relationship and communication between them.
While trying to understand the directive to disband the PKTT, Cachalia told the committee that Masemola had been against the move but was willing to cooperate with Mchunu.
He said this cooperation extended to Masemola, who advised Mchunu that the dockets should be transferred in a systematic manner to ensure they were not tampered with.
