Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu has distanced himself from the controversial removal of 121 case dockets from a task team investigating political killings, telling parliament’s ad hoc committee on police corruption that his directive to disband the unit made no mention of how the dockets should be handled.
Mchunu’s testimony on Tuesday directly contradicted evidence previously given by deputy national commissioner for crime detection Shadrack Sibiya, who told the committee he removed the dockets because he “could not disobey an order from the minister”.
Mchunu told parliamentarians that there was “no word, no word at all, about dockets in my directive” in his December 2024 letter giving the instruction to disband the task team. He added that his decision to dissolve the unit was administrative, not an attempt to protect criminal networks.
The committee’s inquiry into corruption and criminality in the justice system — running parallel to a commission chaired by retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga — has become the latest arena for senior police officials to trade accusations of interference and misconduct.
Both inquiries were established after explosive claims by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who alleged that political figures and top officers had colluded with criminal syndicates to undermine investigations into politically motivated murders.
At the Madlanga commission, Mkhwanazi testified that the Gauteng-based “Big Five” cartel had influenced the disbandment of the task team, which was investigating dozens of politically linked assassinations in the province.
In parliament, he repeated those claims, accusing Mchunu and senior officers of halting sensitive investigations and shielding suspects from prosecution.
Sibiya, who implemented Mchunu’s directive to dissolve the unit, has consistently rejected Mkhwanazi’s version of events, describing the allegations as baseless and part of a succession battle for the position of national police commissioner.
Sibiya told MPs that Mchunu’s directive was clear that the task team should be disbanded “immediately” — a team he considered “elite” and “unaccountable”.
However, Mchunu’s testimony this week appeared to undermine Sibiya’s defence, suggesting that the deputy commissioner could have acted on his own interpretation of the order.
Asked by ANC MP Thokozile Sokanyile whether he was aware that his directive had caused investigations to stall, Mchunu replied that the handling of case files followed a “very different process” from the administrative disbandment of the task team.
Mchunu also categorically denied any connection to Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, a murder suspect alleged to have lobbied for the task team’s shutdown through North West businessman Brown Mogotsi.
“I’ve never met Matlala alone. I’ve never met him in the company of [Brown] Mogotsi and possibly in any other capacity. He’s not somebody that I know. He’s not somebody that I’ve spoken to directly or indirectly,” Mchunu said.
His statement aligns with Sibiya’s previous testimony denying any involvement with Mogotsi or Matlala, after crime intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo presented WhatsApp messages at the Madlanga commission allegedly linking them to the disbandment.
Sibiya told MPs he “doubts” the authenticity of the messages and suggested they might have been tampered with during Matlala’s bail proceedings. However, Sibiya admitted to knowing Matlala as a service provider in the South African Police Service (SAPS) and held a meeting to address tender contract issues.
Mchunu, Sibiya and Mkhwanazi’s conflicting testimonies have deepened the perception of a leadership crisis within the SAPS, where fractured institutional loyalties are playing out in the public terrain. Recently, President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended the inspector general of intelligence Imtiaz Fazel, after a complaint to parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence, adding to the instability across the policing and intelligence services.
This week, the Madlanga commission heard evidence that elements within the Gauteng police are colluding with criminal syndicates.
Witness A, an investigator in the Gauteng organised crime unit who testified anonymously for safety reasons, has implicated senior officers in drug cartels and syndicated hits, while describing a culture of intimidation from fellow officers and corruption that reaches into police leadership.