Mkhwanazi determined to fight for political killings task team to continue its work

JOHANNESBURG - KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi will continue to fight to ensure the political killings task team is allowed to proceed with high-profile investigations that may implicate senior cops.

In December, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu wrote a letter to the National Police Commissioner, Fannie Masemola, to disband the task team - a directive that hasn’t been implemented. 

Mkhwanazi recently briefed the portfolio committee on police, saying the directive comes at a time when the political killings task team are probing senior cops at the head office. 

ALSO READ: 

• 'The truth will always come out': KZN's Mkhwanazi not fazed by IPID investigation
  
• EXCLUSIVE: KZN top cop Mkhwanazi believes his decision to clear CI spy boss Khan behind IPID move to probe him

Mchunu was likely influenced in writing a letter to the national commissioner, requesting that the KZN political killings task team be disbanded. 

This is according to Mkhwanazi, who believes the probes by the task team into senior police officials is causing panic at the national head office. 

“Someone came and whispered to the minister to close this. Because this [unit] is investigating cases that might link either his or her associates, or colleagues that he or she works with, or the high-profile people that the person might know outside the organisation, or a criminal syndicate out there that needs to be protected for whatever reason. But the question is who is the person that will have whispered to the minister and influenced him to sign a letter to disband the unit?”

President Cyril Ramaphosa established the task team at the height of political killings in KZN in 2018.