Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu did not consult South African Police Service (SAPS) chief financial officer Puleng Dimpane before disbanding the political killings task team, partly citing budget constraints, she told MPs on Tuesday.
Dimpane, who reports directly to national commissioner Fannie Masemola, oversees the police service’s entire budget.
She told parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s July allegations of political corruption that Mchunu used her information note — in which she called for the restructuring of the SAPS — out of context.
“I [was] shocked when this information note was utilised as evidence and [tried] to portray a picture that I was advocating for the disbandment of the political task team. It is taken out of context,” Dimpane testified.
“I had indicated that it was my view that this team was established to deal with the problems in KwaZulu-Natal. It’s been five years; clearly, this team is dealing with a problem that does not want to go away. For us to be able to resource this team properly, we must have a permanent structure.”
Mchunu previously argued before the ad hoc committee that the KwaZulu-Natal-based team drained too much of the police budget, which could be allocated to the murder and robbery unit. Deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya repeated similar claims in his own testimony.
“I never gave the minister that document or General Sibiya for that matter,” Dimpane said on Tuesday.
She said she had raised concerns with Masemola about the nature of the task team. From a budgeting perspective, she said, it was difficult to receive repeated funding applications “every three months for five years”. This made proper budget planning almost impossible.
Dimpane added that she had requested a work study to explore whether it was “possible that the task team could become a permanent structure” and told Masemola that the organisational development unit should be tasked with creating such a structure for the task team.
Asked whether Mchunu had requested a cost analysis from her office, she replied: “No.”
“From me as a CFO, I have never been requested to present about the operations to the minister,” she added.
Dimpane said she met Mchunu only as part of routine orientation when he became police minister. She submitted five budget reports to him on Masemola’s instruction, but the task team never came up.
“I have had conversations with the national commissioner to say, ‘My understanding is that a task team is established for a specific period, for a specific reason, and then it is withdrawn. But with the [task team] we have noted that it is clearly dealing with something that is permanent.”
Mchunu made a similar argument, saying the task team was set up for a short period and that political killings had largely occurred during apartheid. Sibiya also testified to believing that the team had served its purpose.
“I’ve even made suggesting to say, let’s us task ODI to put together a permanent structure, and we give this structure to General Mkhwanazi in KZN to deal with this permanent problem, because for five years we can’t continue like this from a budgeting point of view,” Dimpane said.
She said Masemola agreed that a permanent structure might be necessary because the task team’s scope had expanded, but added that it should be national rather than provincial.
Dimpane said she went on leave on 17 December 2024, two weeks before Mchunu sent a letter stating that the task team was “no longer adding value to policing”.
“While I was on leave, I learnt about the disbandment. I think I saw something on one of the news outlets. That’s how I learnt about it,” she said, adding that she was “shocked” when her note later appeared as evidence suggesting she supported the unit’s disbandment.