Mchunu defends task team decision

Suspended police minister says political killings unit was never permanent

- Nkateko Joseph Mabasa

Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu has defended his controversial decision to disband a task team investigating political killings, arguing it was never a formal unit of the police service and was meant to operate temporarily.

On Thursday, Mchunu made his first public appearance before parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating police corruption, where he sought to clear his name after allegations of political interference levelled against him by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, initially at a 6 July media briefing.

“Everyone was aware that this was a task team. A unit would be deliberately established as part of the organogram of the police for a long period of time. Task teams are for a particular purpose and timeframe,” Mchunu said.

He told MPs that national police boss Fannie Masemola had withheld crucial evidence from the Madlanga commission, the judicial inquiry established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to probe the disbandment of the task team and broader allegations of political interference in the criminal justice system.

“Mine was to give effect to the work study outcomes,” said Mchunu, referring to a 2019 police work study that recommended that the task team be disbanded. There is just no way you are going to be successful on the ground because you are just piling people to the same task team.

“As soon as the mission is accomplished by a task team, officers are expected to return to their respective units and departments.”

Mchunu said that, after his appointment in June last year, he had gone to great lengths to understand the structure of the police force and had received a full briefing from his predecessor Bheki Cele and senior South African Police Service (SAPS) officials.

This, he said, contradicted the version of events presented by Mkhwanazi and Masemola, who told the commission, chaired by retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga, that Mchunu had not been briefed on the task team.