 (1).png){kind=spacer}
2 weeks ago
2
Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and the ad hoc committee’s evidence leader, Norman Arendse.
- Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has told Parliament that the Political Killings Task Team has run rampant with little oversight.
- Mchunu also claimed that the unit could not account for its spending.
- On Thursday, the ad hoc committee probing allegations of criminal infiltration of the police service heard from Mchunu.
Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu claims that funding to keep the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) operational had been irregular since 2022 when former national police commissioner Khehla Sitole was removed.
In his first day of testimony before the ad hoc committee probing allegations of the criminal infiltration of the police on Thursday, Mchunu said the committee had been misled into believing that the PKTT was meant to operate only in KwaZulu-Natal.
According to Mchunu, the motivation for the extension of the National PKTT was required for it to continue to exist.
The PKTT’s disbandment was approved in a 2019 work study.
“As already indicated, the NPKTT was established in July 2018. Because it was established as a special project, it has no budget of its own. Therefore, in order to justify its continuation on a yearly basis, extensions by the national commissioner in consultation with the minister was required. The extensions I was advised would justify the costs was that the department is not found to be in contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (sic).
READ | Mchunu became angry when he heard of plan to ‘wind down’ PKTT, wanted instant disbandment
“Every financial year the NPKTT had to be extended as suggested. It is not surprising that national commissioner Fannie Masemola and (KwaZulu-Natal commissioner Nhlanhla) Mkhwanazi did not mention the issue of the extension because they knew very well that post 2022, after the departure of General Sitole, no extensions were sought nor granted for the continuation of the NPKTT. That renders the expenditure irregular under the Public Finance Management Act,” Mchunu said.
Furthermore, Mchunu said Masemola and Mkhwanazi had misled the committee on several occasions.
“Generals Masemola and Mkhwanazi gave evidence before the ad hoc committee, but they failed to demonstrate that the required extensions for the continuation of the NPKTT were granted after General Sitole’s resignation. They failed to produce such evidence of the extensions because no such extensions were granted after General Sitole’s departure.”
He added:
In summary, the recommendation was that in relation to the NPKTT, that the functions had to be transferred to the murder and robbery units within the SAPS (South African Police Service) in order to capacitate and direct focus on a more permanent structure.
“This was to avoid the task teams, including the NPKTT, operating in silos with no proper coordination or budgetary oversight.”
Mchunu also said suspended deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya bemoaned the failure to implement the previous work studies that had been conducted.
“It is common knowledge that as at September 2024, the NPKTT was still fully operational and not incorporated into the Murder and Robbery Unit as recommended in at least two work studies. On 5 June 2025, General Masemola, for reasons only known to him, signed this work study a year after it was presented to him.
“In signing the work study, he made this remark: ‘Implementation of the units must be expedited’. It took General Masemola an entire year to say this one line. If the implementation of the units was to be expedited, how can the decision to disband be surprising and unexpected?” Mchunu said, accusing Masemola of “withholding information” about the disbandment of the PKTT.
READ | Malema wants Cat Matlala at ad hoc committee, but not CI general who attended EFF birthday
Mchunu says there was no proper handover between Sitole and Masemola as national commissioner, because there was a gap between their appointments.
He also said since Masemola became commissioner in 2022, there were approvals for further budgets, not for the task team’s continued existence.
“In fact, just a year after the task team was formed, the senior management wished to disband it in 2019. It is therefore disingenuous of General Masemola to claim that the decision to disband was sudden and unexpected,” he said.
