Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, who is currently on special leave, has come under intense cross-examination over his decision to create a new task team focused on taxi violence and extortion in Eastern Cape while disbanding the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) in the same month.
The minister instructed South African Police Service (SAPS) National Commissioner Fannie Masemola to set up the new team on December 9, 2024. It was intended to mirror the almost-disbanded PKTT and respond to rising taxi violence and extortion in East London and Butterworth.
Decision based on a 2019 work study
The matter was raised on Friday at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Corruption, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System. It is led by retired Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga in Pretoria. Mchunu is facing allegations that he irregularly shut down the PKTT in order to protect criminal networks.
During his testimony, Mchunu explained that his decision set out in a letter dated December 31 2024 was partly based on a 2019 work study. This study recommended that the SAPS establish a permanent murder and robbery unit rather than rely on a stand-alone team like the PKTT.
He argued that such a unit would be able to handle the same investigations more effectively. And it will do so with fewer resource demands.
Mchunu added that keeping the PKTT separate required extra funding and capacity. And these resources would be better used inside a permanent unit. Commissioners grilled him on why, despite this view, he had ordered the creation of another specialised team for the Eastern Cape.
Slight shift from previous testimony
On Thursday, Mchunu had told the commission that a task team dedicated to certain types of murder risked creating a false hierarchy of murders. He insisted all murders deserved the same investigations. But on Friday, he shifted slightly. He emphasises that the taxi violence task team had a short-term purpose.
“This is a team to go and work with or reinforce murder and robbery in Eastern Cape. They are going there to reinforce. How do I reconcile that the hierarchy and so on? They are not there to deal with particular societal categorisation in the form of KZN …I’m saying in 2018 there was nothing wrong because there were targeted councillors at the local government level? Therefore, it was a specific category.
“Here, you are just going there to deal with violence in the same way that happened in KZN in 2018, but slightly different. It is just the violent killing of drivers, taxi owners, or whoever [it] was in Eastern Cape at that time,” said Mchunu.
He told the commission that the team’s mandate was to support the murder and robbery unit during the spike in violence and then return to their normal duties.
He said the issue with PKTT is that they work as a semi-permanent task team. It is sitting parallel with the murder and robbery unit.
