By Johnathan Paoli
Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has told the Madlanga Commission that the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) would have been dissolved as early as March 2024 if SAPS management had implemented a 2019 restructuring plan.
Testifying on Tuesday, Mchunu said National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola briefed him on 1 December 2024 that the PKTT had never been a formal SAPS unit, but an interim task team created years earlier without long-term structural integration.
He insisted that disbanding the PKTT was not a unilateral or rogue act, but the continuation of a process initiated in 2019 under then-national commissioner Khehla Sitole.
According to Mchunu, a 2019 work study—signed off by Sitole—absorbed the PKTT’s functions into a broader Murder and Robbery Unit whose mandate expressly included political killings.
An implementation letter authorising this restructuring was issued in November 2019, but SAPS “failed to act for years”.
When SAPS revisited the issue in March 2024, it found a proliferation of unmonitored task teams, including the PKTT, operating with no coordination, oversight, or proper budgets.
Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, Mchunu said, had signed the 2024 assessment himself, noting the “deeply concerning” lack of implementation.
Masemola finally signed off on the implementation step on 5 June 2025. Had he done so a year earlier, Mchunu argued, “the PKTT and units like it would have dissolved automatically.”
He added that he had since been advised that the PKTT’s continued operation without formal extension rendered its spending “irregular” under the Public Finance Management Act.
The unit had no dedicated budget and had relied heavily on the national operational centre, which by late 2024 had been asked to absorb nearly R95 million in PKTT costs for the 2024/25 financial year.
The SAPS Chief Financial Officer recommended cutting this to R20 million.
A central point of dispute has been the December 2024 raids on businessmen Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and Katiso “KT” Molefe.
Mchunu maintained he was never briefed on these operations.
Both Masemola and Crime Intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo testified that they briefed him on 16 January 2025.
Mchunu told the commission he would address the contradiction later in his evidence.
Flanked by senior counsel Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, Mchunu opened his testimony by stressing that, in his decades of public service, he had “never once” been accused of corruption.
He said explosive allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi on 6 July were the first such accusations.
The commission allowed him to give his version of events without interruption, with re-examination by his lawyers scheduled for Friday.
At the start of Tuesday’s proceedings, he informed the commission, at the prompting of evidence leader Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube, that he wears a hearing aid, leading Judge Madlanga to ask him to raise his voice.
Mchunu repeatedly distanced himself from operational policing decisions, saying he could not answer for SAPS actions taken without his knowledge.
He said he learned of alleged criminal conduct involving senior officials, including Sibiya, only from evidence aired before the commission.
Tracing his early impressions after taking office, he said he quickly detected deep structural dysfunction in SAPS, particularly within Crime Intelligence.
He was surprised to discover that Khumalo also served as project leader of the PKTT—a dual role he found “unexpected” and impractical.
He added that he was unaware at the time that Sibiya had raised similar concerns.
The commission resumes on Wednesday morning.
INSIDE POLITICS
