By Johnathan Paoli
Deputy National Commissioner for Policing Tebello Mosikili has denied any prior knowledge of, or involvement in, the decision to disband the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), telling Parliament’s ad hoc committee that she only learned of the directive through an email and subsequent media reports.
Appearing before the committee on Tuesday morning, Mosikili said there had been no discussion about disbanding the PKTT during engagements with suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu or National Commissioner Fanie Masemola, despite a meeting in December 2024.
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“There was no discussion between myself and the minister or the national commissioner about the disbandment of the PKTT when we met in KwaZulu-Natal during the festive campaign,” she said.
Mosikili, who was serving as acting national police commissioner when the directive was issued on 31 December 2024, told MPs she first became aware of the decision two days later.
“I only learned of the PKTT’s disbandment through an email on January 2 and subsequent media reports,” she said.
She said that the initial alert came via a media query forwarded to her office.
“I only learned about the directive when the national spokesperson sent me a media enquiry on the matter,” Mosikili testified.
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She said certain details contained in the directive immediately raised concern.
“The directive to disband the PKTT was confusing and left me surprised, causing me to question its authenticity due to the letter’s tone, timing and dates,” she said.
he PKTT was established in 2018 amid escalating political killings in KwaZulu-Natal and later expanded to assist with politically linked violence in other provinces.
At the time of its formation, Mosikili was the divisional commissioner of detective services and attended the inter-ministerial meetings that led to its creation.
Asked about the possible temporary nature of the unit, Mosikili stressed that task teams such as the PKTT were not ad hoc structures that could simply be dissolved overnight.
“In my view, the manner in which it has to be disbanded, all task team will have to draw up the ‘demob’ plan. We have what we call a demobilisation plan that will give step by step activities that should be undertaken,” Mosikili told the committee.
She said a proper demobilisation plan would have to account for investigators, crime intelligence operatives, forensic teams, combat units and interdepartmental partners involved in active cases.
“You cannot just disband the team without considering all those factors and drawing up a clear plan of demobilising,[especially if you want] to avoid fruitless expenditure if such commitments have already been made,” she said.
The directive, she explained, had implications for ongoing investigations, court dockets and relationships built between investigators, prosecutors, witnesses and victims’ families.
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“There is a process that the investigator will take, the relationship between the investigator and the prosecutor that is dealing with the matter, the relationship between the investigator and the witnesses, the family of the victims, the informants that have assisted you to solve the case,” she said.
Mosikili also said that Mchunu’s former chief of staff, Cedric Nkabinde, later confirmed awareness of a foreign-origin email that had been copied to five recipients on 31 December 2024 regarding the disbandment.
She stopped short of alleging wrongdoing but indicated that the communication chain and timing required clarity.
The committee heard that cost considerations had been cited as a reason for disbanding the unit.
Mosikili pushed back against the notion that task teams were dispensable.
She explained that task teams are often deployed when local capacity is inadequate or when local policing structures may be compromised or under pressure.
Mosikili said that national intervention teams are carefully coordinated operations involving logistics, accommodation, subsistence and travel, and other resource allocations that cannot be reversed instantly.
The committee continues.
