MPs buried call to probe Cele over PKTT meddling, says De Haas

Activist accuses parliament of ignoring her correspondence

- By Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane

Human rights activist Mary de Haas has accused parliament of ignoring her warnings that former police minister Bheki Cele interfered in the work of the political killings task team (PKTT), which was established seven years ago to investigate politically motivated murders in KwaZulu-Natal.

De Haas, an honorary research fellow in the University of KwaZulu-Natal's school of law, said she first alerted parliament to Cele taking operational control of the task team through one of his subordinates, Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo, in 2021. She told MPs that this amounted to political interference in criminal investigations.

In her 2021 letter to the parliament’s portfolio committee on police, seen by Sunday World, De Haas accused Cele of “grossly irregular and possibly criminal conduct” in his management of the unit, and warned that his hands-on role in politically charged investigations risked shielding his own ANC colleagues from scrutiny.

“Minister Cele continues to control the ministerial task team into political killings in KZN through his proxy, Gen Khumalo,” she wrote.

“He reports to the minister directly and not to the national commissioner. As you will know, minister Cele is a very senior member of the ANC in KZN, so he is, in effect, controlling investigations into killings in which his own colleagues may be suspects.”