Madlanga Commission: Questions over who drafted letter to disband political killings task team arise

Questions over who was behind the drafting of a letter to disband the political killings task team have surfaced during day one of the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.

KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi kicked off his testimony at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria, where he suggested that Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu wasn’t the driving force behind the decision to disband the task team.

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Mchunu issued a letter to National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola in December, requesting the task team be disbanded and Mkhwanazi believes the decision was Mchunu’s alone.

Mkhwanazi alleges that during a conversation with Mchunu’s chief of staff, Cedrick Nkabinde, it became apparent that someone else was advising Mchunu to disband the political killings task team.

He said at the time, Mchunu was in KZN, but Nkabinde was liaising between someone else in Gauteng and Mchunu around the contents of the disbandment letter, issued on 31 December.

“The correspondence would have gone to the chief of staff, who then directs it to the minister, and perhaps the minister will not be happy with some of the content and the chief of staff will send it to the drafters - that’s why the back and forth.”

Mkhwanazi on several occasions said he found it “odd” and “strange” that Mchunu issued the disbandment instruction without consulting the national commissioner or himself.

He claims the instruction came just months after the task team was requested to assist in a counterintelligence investigation in Gauteng, which exposed how members of the criminal justice system were protecting criminal syndicates.

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