Deputy police minister Cassel Mathale. (SAPS/Facebook)
Deputy police minister Cassel Mathale’s testimony at parliament’s police ad hoc committee added to the number of government officials who were not consulted before suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu disbanded the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team.
Mathale said Mchunu’s December 2024 directive to “immediately” disband the task team and submit a closure report within a month, as ordered in the letter, was “not practical”, “unusual” and “problematic”.
“It was very difficult to really put my thoughts together as to what was happening to him to craft the letter in the manner that he did,” Mathale said.
“I don’t know what was going through his mind and the circumstances he was in when he penned the latter.”
Mathale joins the growing list of officials who have indicated they were unaware of Mchunu’s order.
National police commissioner Fannie Masemola has told the ad hoc committee he was on leave when Mchunu sent the letter to have the KZN task team disbanded.
Although he described his letter as administrative and within his powers, Mchunu admitted to the committee he had not consulted President Cyril Ramaphosa, who called for the establishment of the task team in 2018 to tackle politically related murders.
On Tuesday, the deputy police minister said he learnt about Mchunu’s decision on social media, adding Mchunu later phoned “in early January to say that the letter that is circulating, he wrote the letter”.
Mathale said he first dismissed it as fake news, but when he “later realised it’s true”, he “didn’t understand what could have motivated him to pen such a letter in the manner that he did”.
Evidence leader Norman Arendse asked if Mathale or his co-deputy minister of police, Polly Boshielo, were consulted.
“Of course he didn’t consult. The only time that he spoke to me was after the letter was out and he was saying, ‘Yes, I’ve penned the letter, don’t be surprised,’” Mathale said.
He didn’t question Mchunu for taking a strong executive stand against the task team, which he communicated within the police network.
However, Mathale said the task team had been doing a good job and saw no reason why Mchunu had singled it out.
“The effectiveness of the team is not in question; they did an excellent job. Since they were instituted, [there has been] progress around killings of activists, what we might call political killings, that took place,” Mathale said.
“In fact, their effectiveness has never been an issue that was questioned within the space.”
Mathale said he attended two briefings in KZN held by the task team. He added from the last task team briefing in March 2024, three months before Mchunu’s appointment, he “didn’t get an impression that there are problems around the team”, adding, “I think everybody was happy with what was presented and what they were doing.”
Mathale said he had often highlighted the need for Mchunu and national commissioner Masemola to have engagements and first align before making presentations in meetings or making decisions.
“There are many instances where we’ve had meetings and agreed that the two of them must have engagement outside ourselves because the absence of that will lead to misunderstanding amongst them, which can create a problem for us. And we are here now because of that,” Mathale said.
He worked “extremely well” with former police minister Bheki Cele, who told the ad hoc committee that his successor Mchunu, did not consult before disbanding the task team and did not respond to subsequent requests for a meeting.
Mathale said he had brief discussions with Mchunu about the structure and the need to strengthen police capacity to reduce the need for task teams. He said the discussions were not specific to the KZN task teams, but rather to strengthen internal capacity within the murder and robbery unit.
“It is in this context that the issues we discussed around the [task team] took place,” he said.
He said the current difficulties within the SAPS did not mean it was in disarray — “it’s intact and able to carry out its responsibilities”.
However, there were “individuals” within the police service who were “problematic”.