By Johnathan Paoli
Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu returned to the Madlanga Commission on Wednesday to defend his controversial decision to disband or, as he repeatedly insisted, “absorb”, the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
His testimony centred on complaints of alleged human rights abuses within the unit, concerns about governance failures, and what he said was an untenable concentration of policing resources on political killings at the expense of the murder crisis gripping the country.
Mchunu resumed his evidence with Advocate Mahlape Sello leading him, after briefly standing down for subpoenaed witness Julius Mkhwanazi.
Challenging the claim that the police minister exercises no operational role whatsoever, he said the post-apartheid policing model was deliberately designed to place the service under “public control” through a political head.
“I want to point out right at the beginning that we dispel the notion that the Minister of Police has no operational role whatsoever
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