Parliament’s ad hoc committee is divided over whether suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu disbanded the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) at the behest of criminal cartels.
The parties reached different conclusions about the relationships involving Mchunu, Brown Mogotsi and Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, who has been implicated as an alleged leader of the so-called Big Five cartel.
At the centre of the dispute is whether Mchunu instructed his alleged associate, Mogotsi, to communicate with and solicit funds from Matlala.
The uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MK Party/MKP) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) argued that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence linking Mchunu to the alleged criminal network, while the ANC and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) said there was insufficient forensic evidence to establish such a connection.
The MK Party highlighted what it described as an “alleged corrupt relationship” between Mchunu and Mogotsi, who was in contact with Matlala.
“The MKP submitted that Minister Mchunu’s initial denial or downplaying of his association with Mr Mogotsi was difficult to reconcile with the relationship subsequently acknowledged and that Parliament had not been provided with a complete or accurate account when the matter was first raised,” the report said.
The EFF said Mogotsi featured across several distinct strands of evidence involving the police ministry, the PKTT, senior public officials and operational matters, despite holding no formal position in the South African Police Service.
The party called for Mogotsi to be investigated, saying his explanations that he gained access to information as a police informant were inconsistent and unsatisfactory.
“The committee did not receive sufficient official documentation to verify the tasking, its scope, the identity and authority of the handler and the co-handler, the operational controls applied or the financial arrangements governing the alleged operation,” the EFF noted in the report.
Mogotsi allegedly solicited R500 000 from Matlala for the ANC’s January 8 conference but admitted that he never intended to introduce Matlala to Mchunu. He had acted without the minister’s knowledge.
The ANC submitted that while the evidence established contact between certain individuals, including meetings and social interactions, it did not establish that the interactions constituted a corrupt relationship or that Mogotsi acted corruptly on Mchunu’s behalf in dealing with Matlala.
“The available evidence remains circumstantial and incomplete,” the ANC said in the report.
The PA similarly submitted that the evidence before the committee did not establish a direct causal relationship between the issuing of Mchunu’s directive and organised criminal infiltration.
It said the committee had not received direct forensic, financial or digital evidence showing that the directive was issued because of criminal influence.
The parties were also divided over Mchunu’s decision to disband the PKTT.
“The MKP submitted that the committee found that Minister Mchunu deliberately sought to dissolve the PKTT. The reasons advanced by the minister for doing so were contradictory, inconsistent and not supported by a complete contemporaneous documentary record,” the report said.
The MK Party acknowledged that the evidence did not establish that the directive was issued pursuant to a proven corrupt agreement or to protect a cartel or criminal syndicate.
However, it argued that the incomplete decision-making record, the unexplained circulation of the directive and the relationships and communications surrounding its issuing raised legitimate concerns that warranted further investigation and institutional scrutiny.
The ANC submitted that although the minister was empowered to issue directives, the committee should distinguish between irrational or arbitrary conduct and unlawfulness.
“Parliament should exercise caution not to purport to review or set aside executive decisions, as that function resides with the courts. The committee’s role is to assess whether the exercise of public power was rational and supported by the evidence,” the ANC said.
The ANC noted that Mchunu acted arbitrarily by failing to consult President Cyril Ramaphosa and the inter-ministerial committee before disbanding the PKTT.
The EFF submitted that Mchunu’s “irrational directive to immediately shut down or disband the PKTT” directly contributed to the transfer of dockets without adequate regard for investigations.
“The EFF submitted further that the circumstances of the transfer raise unresolved questions about whether there was an improper or corrupt reason for the transfer and, by extension, for the directive itself,” the report said.
Ultimately, the committee stopped short of finding that Mchunu’s directive was the product of a corrupt agreement or was intended to protect a cartel or criminal syndicate.
“The committee ultimately finds that the evidence does not establish that this directive was issued pursuant to a corrupt agreement or for the purpose of protecting a cartel or criminal syndicate.
“However, the incomplete decision trail, the timing and implementation of the directive, the leaking of the directive and the surrounding relationships and communications warrant further investigation and institutional scrutiny,” the report concluded.