The testimony of national police commissioner Fannie Masemola at the Madlanga commission this week placed suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu at the centre of the capture of the justice system by the criminal underworld.
Masemola’s version of events corroborates that of KwaZulu-Natal commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who last week said Mchunu protected drug cartels and hampered investigations in the fight against political killings in Gauteng.
Masemola told the commission that phone records seized during the arrests of murder suspects Katiso Molefe and Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala showed a direct association with Mchunu, which explained why a task team on political killings was dismantled abruptly.
Mchunu — who has denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations “wild” when Mkhwanazi first made them in a July media briefing — was placed on special leave and is yet to appear at the inquiry mission chaired by retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga. President Cyril Ramaphosa established it to investigate political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system in the wake of Mkhwanazi’s claims.
Mkhwanazi told journalists that 121 case dockets had been taken from the task team in early 2025 to shield suspects. The dockets were subsequently returned on 28 August.
This week, Masemola told the commission that the objective had been to strip the task team of Gauteng murder cases and protect cartels linked to Molefe and Matlala.
Echoing Mkhwanazi, he said deputy national police commissioner for crime detection Shadrack Sibiya was instrumental in carrying out Mchunu’s directive. Sibiya, who now faces disciplinary charges, sent out a letter to transfer 121 dockets from the task team to the national police office.
Masemola told the commission that Mchunu’s order was an overreach of his duties and interfered with the operation of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
“I take it as an encroachment to the operational activities of the SAPS because he goes as far as saying when it must be disbanded without [me] knowing the reasons why, I definitely regard this as an overreach to the functions of the national commission,” he said.
On Thursday SAPS head of governance, legislation and policy, Petronella van Rooyen, also told the commission that Mchunu “did not have the authority” to disband the task team as the operational mandate of the police lay with Masemola as national commissioner.
“The decision of the minister to close the political task team that was responsible for the investigation of crime fell outside the authority or mandate of the minister,” Van Rooyen said.
“From a regulatory standpoint and based on the legislative excurses detailed above I am of the view that the decision to disband the [ political killings task team] as a task team lay in the exclusive authority of the national commissioner and that the minister did not have the legislative authority to disband the [task team] let alone in the manner that he did.”
Mkhwanazi has come under fire from some quarters for the very public nature of his disclosures in July, but political analyst Ongama Mtimka this week applauded the move as “necessary to salvage the integrity of the police”.
“What they did on July 6 was necessary in taking the war to the public domain. Mkhwanazi used public sentiment and rage manufacturing to galvanise public support,” said Mtimka, adding this was “a brilliant strategy to show the underworld the extent to which some of the police are willing to go to protect the justice system”.
He said the disbandment of the task team speaks to how elite relationships need to be massaged, and that the rot that enabled the capture of the justice system may have gone as high up as the presidency.
“The failures of Mkhwanazi and Masemola to get the president and parliamentarians to do the right thing lay bare the kleptocracy and its process to secure and maintain office,” said Mtimka, adding, “the commission is now able to reveal the damage the ANC has caused in its efforts to secure and maintain positions”.
Wayne Duvenage, the chief executive of anti-corruption watchdog Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) concurred, saying that had Mkhwanazi simply lodged an internal complaint, “he might have been removed on trumped-up charges”.
The July briefing gave him protection, Duvenage said, noting that cartels are “very influential” in the police and criminal justice system and that the testimony provided so far shows this goes up to the executive level and implicates MPs.
On the first day of his testimony last week, Mkhwanazi warned that the criminal justice system was at “real risk of total collapse” if urgent reforms are not made. He said he aimed to expose the continuous threat and sabotage which have occurred over an extended period.
Mkhwanazi told the commission that the same criminal networks that were involved during the former crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli’s 2011 slush fund case are still occupying high office.
“Crime intelligence, modus operandi back then and players that were still involved back then with the looting of the money and irregularities are still involved in crime intelligence today, and some of them are occupying high positions. So there are no reforms implemented in crime intelligence,” he said.
The task team’s problems began when 10 of its members were dispatched to Gauteng and assisted with the arrest of three suspects — including a hitman, a former Transnet employee and a SAPS Johannesburg detective — for the murder of Armand Swart, an engineer who acted as a whistleblower for corruption in state-owned entity Transnet.
The arrest catalysed a wider investigation which revealed far-reaching connections within the criminal underworld. After the task team identified Molefe and Matlala as persons of interest in the case in December 2024, Mkhwanazi received a letter from Mchunu several weeks later disbanding the task team.
“My observation in this regard, as indicated above, is that further existence of this team is no longer required, as it is not adding any value to policing in South Africa. I therefore direct that the political killings task team be disestablished immediately,” Mchunu wrote.
Mkhwanazi told the commission the order was “irrational and irregular”, adding: “The decision was going to have a serious impact in terms of the investigation of crime and those cases that were before the team.”
This week, Masemola agreed, telling the commission on Tuesday: “To come to that conclusion without having this briefing, I wonder who briefed him.”
Masemola said if disbandment was necessary, it should have been a phased process: “If ever it has to be done it cannot be done in this abrupt manner.” He said he had asked Mchunu: “What is the reason for the disbandment of the team?” and that “I never got a reason as to why.”
The task team was reduced in size and given a three-month budget for April to June 2025. Although Mkhwanazi had indicated in his affidavit to the commission that the task team had been disbanded, he said he had since received information that the team’s budget had been approved till March 2026.
This week, Masemola testified about being troubled when Mchunu insisted to him that political killings had only happened pre-1994, before the advent of democracy in South Africa. The police commissioner said he argued for the continued existence of the unit and highlighted 295 finalised cases and 115 ongoing cases in court which needed to be finalised.
“Given the fact that the minister was instructing and not soliciting our views on the disbandment of the [team] I deemed it necessary to speak to the president,” said Masemola.
He said he told Ramaphosa in February that dissolving “such a successful team” without due process was damaging. The president, he said, promised to speak to Mchunu, but never got back to him.
Ramaphosa will probably wait until the testimonies of Mchunu and Sibiya before deciding on whether to dismiss or reinstate them, Outa’s Duvenage said. He slammed the president over his response to the saga, noting that the national anti-corruption advisory council had in August recommended that he establish an anti-corruption body, but he was yet to act on it.
“The cartels are a problem for us in South Africa, and I think the president is not taking this seriously enough,” Duvenage said.
Mtimka commended Ramaphosa for Mchunu’s suspension and for establishing the commission, adding that international affairs have also been keeping the president occupied.
“It was important to [suspend] Mchunu immediately while also creating a fact-finding process. You wouldn’t expect him to be firing people while on transit,” he said, adding however that the commission has so far been provided with “enough collaborating evidence for firing to be done”.
The inquiry also presents an opportune moment to clear house and reform the criminal justice system, he said.
“It is important not to squander the chance to do the right thing and not use the labour laws to protect corrupt politicians. There shouldn’t be a creation of a false hindrance when it is time to act.” Regarding the ad hoc police portfolio committee, which will launch its own inquiry into the matter after the Madlanga commission, Mtimka said it was likely to be fraught with party political skirmishes as MPs were ultimately politicians with an objective to be popular.
The inquiry heard this happened when the team closed in on syndicates tied to murder suspects
