SACP provincial secretary Themba Mthembu
The South African Communist Party (SACP) in KwaZulu-Natal said on Wednesday that the disbanding of the country’s political killings task team was insufficient, and that the team should be the object of an investigation.
The “mysterious” killing of “potential suspects” in political killings was “strange”, SACP provincial secretary Themba Mthembu said during a press briefing by ANC alliance partners in Durban.
He also alluded to the 2017 assassination of former ANC youth league secretary Sindiso Magaqa who, according to “new evidence”, was shot using a weapon purchased with money from Crime Intelligence’s controversial secret account. The task team was under the command of Crime Intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo.
The getaway car used after the assassination was allegedly also procured using the same source.
The Sunday World reported on the allegations last week, allegedly contained in an affidavit written by an “undercover operative”, which was sent to Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.
According to the article, “The operative accused his superiors of using the crime intelligence unit as a ‘Third Force’ by purchasing stolen cars and unlicensed firearms with the secret service account, supplying them to criminals to target ANC councillors, and later eliminating the informants to cover up evidence.”
Mthembu said on Wednesday: “The police are involved in this thing, and if they are involved, it is correct to disband them and come up with a clean unit.”
He said the ANC and its alliance partners had always believed there was a “third force” behind political killings in the province.
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian after the meeting, Mthembu said the SACP was unequivocal that there should be an investigation into the task team, and he would approach Mchunu to demand one.
Mchunu wrote to national police commissioner Fannie Masemola on 31 December saying “further existence of this [task] team is no longer required nor is it adding any value to policing in South Africa. I therefore direct that the political killings task team be disestablished immediately.”
The decision has been met with mixed reaction, given that the country holds local and provincial elections next year, generally a time when political killings spike.
But violence monitor Mary de Haas has welcomed the disbandment, something she called for in a letter to Mchunu in October.
In that letter, De Haas accused the “illegally constituted” task team of achieving very little — most of the cases had been worked on by other officers before they were picked up by the team, she told Mchunu — of spending liberally, and of removing dockets from detectives that fell outside of their mandate, presumably to settle scores for political acquaintances.
She also told Mchunu that the use of the national intervention unit by the task team was “unheard of in other investigations, except when they are called in to assist in arrests of dangerous criminals”, and called for an audit of the team’s funding.
Mthembu said Mchunu should have appointed “an investigative team on the broader killings” and revisited the final report of the Moerane commission of inquiry investigating political killings in KwaZulu-Natal. That report “may have hinted” at possible police involvement in killings, he said.
The R15 million commission was established in October 2016 and was chaired by senior advocate Marumo Moerane, SC. The political killings task team was established as a direct result of some of the evidence led during the commission.
It was mandated with investigating the underlying causes of political violence in KwaZulu-Natal. More than 60 witnesses ended up giving testimony, but the end result was widely considered a damp squib, given its limited mandate and inability to recommend prosecutions.
The commission heard testimony from De Haas and independent activist Vanessa Burger on police brutality, alleged police involvement in killings in the province and police allegedly turning a blind eye to potential hits – even when alerted.
According to the commission’s final report, there was “ample evidence before the commission [of] acts of omission and commission by the police, through incompetence or political manipulation,” which had led to a loss of public confidence in the service.
None of the officers named by De Haas and Burger were held to account.