SAPS major-general tells Madlanga Commission about confusion over 121 political killings dockets

By Johnathan Paoli

Major-General Mary Motsepe told the Madlanga Commission on Monday that the poorly communicated transfer of 121 Political Killing Task Team (PKTT) dockets to SAPS head office left key cases idle for months.

Her testimony also described missed notifications, uncertainty over who authorised the move and unanswered questions about why the files had to be taken to Pretoria at all, or why the team had to be disbanded.

Motsepe, who heads Serious and Violent Crime Investigations within the Detective and Forensic Services Division, headed by the suspended Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya, said she first learned the dockets were being brought to SAPS head office not through official channels, but by a phone call from her commander, Lieutenant-General Khosi Senthumule, on 27 March.

“There was no formal notification, I was never officially informed,” Motsepe testified.

Senthumule asked her to accompany her to Crime Intelligence boss Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo’s