Former police minister Bheki Cele. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Former police minister Bheki Cele has blasted his successor Senzo Mchunu, telling parliament’s ad hoc committee looking into police corruption that the suspended minister overstepped his authority by disbanding the KwaZulu-Natal task team investigating political killings without consulting the national commission and the president.
“The [police] minister cannot establish or disestablish. So it still has to go through the national police commissioner for establishment and disestablishment,” Cele said on Thursday.
Cele, who served as police minister from 2019 until mid-2024, told MPs he had personally briefed President Cyril Ramaphosa about the task team’s success in tackling political killings just two months before last year’s general elections. He said the team was effective and had the president’s backing.
Cele said the task team had been established by an inter-ministerial committee (IMC) under the president and, in his view, “therefore only the IMC could disestablish it”.
He had tried to meet Mchunu after leaving office to discuss the matter but his calls went unanswered. He said he was “shocked” by Mchunu’s December 2024 decision to disband the unit, especially since it was reportedly influenced by letters from University of KwaZulu-Natal academic Mary de Haas, a long-time critic of the task team.
“He should have consulted the national commissioner before making such a move. Ministers don’t instruct national commissioners,” he said.
The task team — formed in 2018 to investigate politically motivated assassinations in KwaZulu-Natal — is at the centre of a political storm engulfing the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Its controversial disbandment has resulted into two parallel probes by the ad hoc committee and the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into policing and political interference. Both have exposed deep divisions, corruption and power struggles within the police hierarchy.
The controversy began after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi accused Mchunu of dissolving the unit to protect Gauteng-based drug cartels during a fiery media briefing in July.
Mkhwanazi alleged that Mchunu had ordered deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya to remove 121 case dockets from the task team — a move reversed after acting police minister Firoz Cachalia intervened.
Mchunu has denied any wrongdoing, calling the allegations “political theatre” and defending his decision as an administrative one. He argued that political killings have dropped sharply, citing only seven recorded cases in 2024, and said the unit had outlived its usefulness.
He also insisted he had never worked with criminal syndicates — despite acknowledging he knew North West businessman Brown Mogotsi, who has been accused of acting as a middleman between Mchunu and alleged cartel figures Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and Katiso Molefe.
Mchunu and Sibiya have both argued that the unit was too costly to sustain — but Cele dismissed this as an excuse. He said the team’s expenses were on par with other ongoing special operations such as Operation Thunder in the Western Cape, which has deployed 200 officers since 2018 to combat gang violence, and Operation Vala uMgodi, targeting illegal mining.
“It’s not true that it is the only [task team] that’s operating and paying money for. Other operations have happened; this Operation Thunder is one of them,” said Cele.
Cele also revealed that he had met Matlala, a police service provider now accused of cartel links, during his tenure as minister, but claimed he had no idea the businessman was connected to criminal networks.
Cele said Matlala had approached him, alleging that Mchunu was using him for “a funding project to become president” and had warned him to stay away from Cele. Matlala also claimed he was pressured to sign an affidavit, allegedly drafted by Sibiya, accusing crime intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo of corruption.
“That is how I know Cat, and now I wish I had not met him,” Cele said.
Cele’s testimony has thrown new fuel onto the fire raging in the SAPS. The Madlanga commission, chaired by retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga, has been hearing evidence of senior police officials allegedly colluding with drug cartels, obstructing investigations and tampering with case files.