Patriotic Alliance MP Ashley Sauls has questioned the staggering costs behind the National Political Killings Task Team’s budget of operation, particularly the laundry budget per member of the team in a month.
Sauls told the Parliamentary Ad Hoc committee investigating allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi that the task team’s financial priorities were deeply misplaced.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu is appearing for the second day of taking questions from the MPs. He is currently on special leave of absence.
He argued that the money could have been better spent improving the overall performance of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
High operational costs
The committee had heard that the task team still requires an additional R31-million to continue operating until March 2026. The proposed budget includes R8-million for overtime, R700, 000 for stationery, and R480, 000 for laundry.
“When you consider the budget allocation for laundry services alone for 12 months in 2022, for 110 members it amounted to R4.4-million — just laundry. This translates to a calculated monthly amount per person, just for laundry, R3, 367.73. This figure is equivalent to the basic living cost of a normal South African. And that money is used on one member just for laundry,” said Sauls.
He questioned Mchunu whether he still considered the PKTT to have done a good job considering the concerns raised.
“When we consider the PKTT, the extension requests, the budget increases even though the staff complement decreases,” said Sauls.
He further explained that, according to the evidence that has been gathered so far, the initial budget request for the team was R57.1-million for a team of 152 members. The budget increased to R97-million for 2021/2022 despite the staff complement decrease to 110 members.
He said in 2019, the task team reported 60 cases that are under investigation. In March 2021, after 18 months in operation and R100-million budget, they reported 62 cases under investigation.
More withdrawals than convictions
He also highlighted that 246 arrests were effected. But of these, 42 were successfully convicted. While 64 charges reported as withdrawn, he said withdrawals were more than convictions.
He questioned Mchunu if this still aligned with the idea that the task team added value to South Africa.
In response, Mchunu said these are some of things that he considered when writing the letter of directives on December 31, 2024. He said amongst these concerns were monetary value, personnel, and running costs of cars.
“When you add all other things, the expense is quiet too high for the cases that were decreasing. As you are referring to,” said Mchunu.
“At that time, you had the problem of the killings as the problem was identified. And it added value as there was a decrease in the cases. But you can always have a concern about what money was getting into that and so on. As I’m indicating,” Mchunu added.
He highlighted that the team added value upon its inception and effectively decreased politically related killings.
Relations with Brown Mogotsi
Sauls said what was written in Mchunu’s letter was correct based on his own findings. But he raised concerns about the relationship Mchunu has with controversial businessman Brown Mogotsi.
He advised Mchunu to stand by his conviction and not worry about public comments. And he said he also stands by what he believes in when it comes to the reasons for disbanding the task team.
“After hearing testimony I then had to, without bias, listen to you and the evidence that you put before. So, when you took a decision that there is a need for disbandment that motivated me to, without bias, neutrally look at the facts and then determine [if] there is some credence, some value in what you are saying.
“What I found is that the evidence shows that when you measure the impact and the value added to SAPS, South Africa as a whole, there is very minimal value. Except for high budgets that’s not even on investigations. But rather spent on protection, laundry and all of that,” said Sauls.
