Crime intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo. (Screenshot from Madlanga Commission)
While Crime Intelligence Head Dumisani Khumalo recommended expanding the KwaZulu-Natal-based political killings task team, suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu summarily disbanded it seven months into his term.
Khumalo told the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that the successful investigative model used by the KZN task team should be adopted across all provinces.
Senior police officials have testified that Mchunu disbanded the unit when it allegedly closed in on Gauteng-based drug cartels.
On Tuesday, Khumalo said the task team had moved beyond traditional investigative methods and adopted an “analysis-driven and prosecutorial-led investigation” methodology to investigate criminal syndicates.
Khumalo said he made the recommendation to provincial police commissioners, the interministerial committee on policing, and the ministry of police, arguing that the unit’s approach represented “a new way of investigating organised crime”.
“We recommended that this methodology be used as a benchmark to try and change the way we are investigating crime because our traditional way is still suitable for normal crime, but when it comes to organised crime, the same traditional ways are not suitable,” said Khumalo.
Khumalo told the commission that the murder of an engineer, believed to be a Transnet whistleblower, Armand Swart, on 17 April 2024, served as the catalyst for the reforms he later recommended.
Swart, who worked for Q Tech, was killed two weeks after the company raised concerns about suspicious procurement at Transnet, involving a bolt spring sold for R3.20 to SK Group and resold to the state-owned entity for R152 per unit for an order of 8 000.
“This is the operation that served as a catalyst for the whole discussion of my testimony,” said Khumalo.
Khumalo said the investigation into Swart’s murder led to the creation of the Gauteng Organised Crime Investigation Operation (GCI Ops) — a combined counterintelligence and organised crime initiative designed to strengthen investigative capacity and coordination.
He said that when the investigation went up the ladder, it revealed that one of the hitmen was a serving police officer at the Johannesburg Central Police Station.
“We’ve picked up that the hit coordinators, as well as the hit orderers, have adopted this new way of recruiting the serving members of SAPS to serve as hitmen.”
However, he said Swart’s murder was the result of mistaken identity, but the subsequent investigation revealed links between the suspects, Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala, Katiso Moelefe, Johannesburg senior police officials, Mchunu and deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya.
He said the arrest of Warrant Officer Pule Tau, a Johannesburg police officer implicated in Swart’s killing, did not come as a surprise.
“Cartels prefer to recruit members with experience with the criminal justice system, including police officers,” he said.
Khumalo said a risk assessment conducted several months after Swart’s murder in August 2024 found that Witness A and Witness B, the investigators in Swart’s case, were in danger of possible assassination by criminal syndicates.
“My office was approached by the provincial head of crime intelligence in Gauteng with a view of briefing me and presenting this draft risk and assessment for my concurrence and input,” he said.
He said the report raised “lots of red flags” because it alluded to criminal syndicates that might have access to it and its recommendations. Instead, Khumalo recommended the establishment of GCI Ops.
“Counter-measures or protective measures that are directed towards Tau and those that are arrested already were not going to be effective, according to my assessment. That is why the decision to register the counterintelligence investigation to identify more of those who might be involved in the syndicate,” said Khumalo.
As project leader of the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team, Khumalo said he brought several of his members into GCI Ops to replicate the task team’s model nationally.
“The first batch of experts that we had to assign to the GCI Ops from the [KZN task team] were mainly experts. We had to get a ballistic expert,” said Khumalo
“In all of our reports, that is included as one of the recommendations to the powers that be,” he said.
Khumalo said the KZN task team’s success had inspired an earlier national programme that brought together officers from every province to train with the unit.
“There was a year when all provinces were requested to send a minimum of six members to sit with the KZN task team and learn,” he said.
“It was a successful intervention. The problem started when they had to go back and implement.”
He said the difficulty lay with senior officers who resisted reform and preferred traditional policing methods.
“The challenge would be with their senior officers who would require them to stick to traditional ways,” he said.