KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has denied allegations of interfering in police operations and misleading parliament.
Mchunu’s denials come after KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said on Sunday at an explosive “special briefing” that the high profile political killings task team was disbanded because it was closing in on politicians and others who had been linked to a criminal syndicate in Gauteng.
Dressed in Special Task Force fatigues, and flanked by armed members of the Special Task Force, Mkhwanazi accused senior police leadership of corruption and obstruction.
Mchunu said later in the day that the “wild allegations” required “an urgent, thorough and transparent investigation, on a proper platform”.
“The Minister of Police will never allow his integrity, that of the Ministry or the SAPS at large to be undermined by insinuations made without evidence or due processes, from anyone, including Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi. We will be reviewing the Provincial Commissioner’s statements and consider appropriate action,” said Mchunu.
Mkhwanazi told journalists at the briefing that Mchunu ordered the closure of the political killings task team, formed in 2018 to investigate politically motivated murders in KwaZulu-Natal but since used in other provinces, as it had uncovered links between drug cartels, politicians, police, and prosecutors.
He said 121 case dockets were removed from the task team in early 2025, ostensibly to shield politicians and politically-connected suspects, and that no investigation had taken place, allegedly on Mchunu’s orders via Deputy National Commissioner for Crime Detection, Shadrack Sibiya, without informing the national or provincial commissioner.
He said five dockets with arrest instructions remain archived in Pretoria.
He also said Mchunu had tried to facilitate a meeting between himself and Sibiya to smooth the waters, but that he had no interest in dealing with “a criminal”, referring to Sibiya.
In an interview with SABC, after Mkhwanazi made the allegations, Sibiya said the KZN top cop should stop “threatening people”.
Sibiya said that he would respond to the allegations after conferring with his legal team, as he wanted to “be mature” and “above the IQ level” of Mkhwanazi.
“I want to respond professionally…without emotion…I will respond to every allegation he has made. None of the allegations he has made are true.”
He said Mkhwanazi should stop “running after the minister and challenging his decisions. I don’t know, maybe he should be the minister of police”.
“[Mkhwanazi] must stop behaving like a warlord, he is a member of the police,” he said.
Mkhwanazi also accused Mchunu of misleading Parliament about his relationship with an associate allegedly linked to organised crime, and specifically to tenderpreneur Vusumuzi “Cat” Matlala who, despite facing criminal allegations, was awarded lucrative SAPS tenders.
As reported by News24, Matlala and his companies were red-flagged by whistleblower Babita Deokaran for corruption linked to a police health services tender, just weeks before she was assassinated. Matlala was under investigation by the Hawks and Special Investigating Unit at the time.
He was arrested in June on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and money laundering, relating to an alleged hit on actress Tebogo Thobejane, which took place in 2023. Matlala’s wife, Tsakani, was also arrested, but was granted bail.
Mkhwanazi said on Sunday that it was the political killing task team’s work in Gauteng, supporting the Organised Crime Investigation Unit, that exposed a syndicate involving politicians, law enforcement, and judicial figures, and it was this investigation that set into effect the disbanding of the task team.
He said a 2024 case involving the murder of Q-tech employee Armard Swart was found by the task team via ballistic analysis on seized firearms to be linked to high-profile crimes (including the attempted hit on actress Thobejane) and also uncovered the web of the aforementioned implicated politicians, law enforcement and judicial figures.
Swart, an engineer, was shot multiple times while seated in his car outside his place of work. He was reportedly mistaken for another employee at the firm who had become a whistleblower after uncovering corruption in a Transnet tender. Four men have been arrested for the murder of Swart and will go on trial in August. The fifth suspect, former Transnet employee Lucky Boitumelo Molefe, has been on the run since December 2024.
Mkhwanazi alleged there was a plot to destabilise the South African Police Service by targeting National Commissioner Fannie Masemola and framing senior officers to prevent them from exposing crime, corruption and the capturing of SAPS.
Between June and July, seven members of SAPS’s embattled Crime Intelligence Division members were arrested, allegedly relating to the appointment of an unqualified civilian to a senior post, but as intimated by Mkhwanazi, this was because they had uncovered the web of high profile figures linked to organised crime.
The seven are Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo (Divisional Commissioner), Maj-Gen Philani Lushaba (Chief Financial Officer), Maj-Gen Josias Lekalakala (Gauteng Crime Intelligence Head), Maj-Gen Nosipho Madondo (Head of Analysis Centre), Maj-Gen Zwelithini Gabela (Technology Services), Brig Dineo Mokwele (Technical Systems) and Brig Phindile Ncube (Head of Vetting).
Several of those arrested are custodians of the Crime Intelligence Secret Services Account — a classified budget intended for covert operations and informant payments, best described as a loosely regulated slush fund. From that fund, buildings were purchased in Johannesburg and Durban, allegedly at inflated prices, for “covert operations”. Those purchases have since been made public.
Mkhwanazi implied that some of those who were arrested were being defamed in public because of the building purchases and couldn’t speak out because of national security. Those who had colluded to arrest them also knew the officers would not speak out, because they could then face charges for breaching national security protocols, he said.
Mkhwanazi said a criminal investigation had been launched into the allegations of infiltration and control of the criminal justice system by organised crime syndicates and that the task team remained operational despite attempts to disrupt its work to protect and serve citizens.
Ian Cameron, the chairperson of the portfolio committee on police, said on X after Mkhwanazi’s briefing that president Cyril Ramaphosa “must take the lead in addressing these serious allegations involving senior SAPS management and the Minister of Police”.
“I have written to the Speaker of the National Assembly to request an urgent parliamentary debate on the disturbing allegations that emerged today regarding SAPS leadership.
“Serious claims made by KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner, General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, have exposed what appears to be deep dysfunction and alleged collusion within the senior ranks of the police.
“Parliament and the Presidency must ensure these claims are independently and thoroughly investigated to restore public trust and demonstrate accountability.
“South Africans deserve clear answers. Silence is not an option,” said Cameron.