Mkhwanazi says Nkabinde had no clue about the chief of staff role when Mchunu appointed him

KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi says the chief of staff, Cedrick Nkabinde, employed in the office of police minister Senzo Mchunu, did not have a clue about the scope of work when he was appointed to the position last year.

Nkabinde is a former member of the SAPS. He left the service as a junior member and was recruited by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid). He left Ipid and was unemployed for a long time after that.

Testifying on Tuesday before parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations of corruption in the criminal justice system, Mkhwanazi explained that he had a close working relationship with Nkabinde and when Mchunu allegedly called Nkabinde to join his office, Nkabinde called Mkhwanazi to ask what a chief of staff was. This was before Mchunu was sworn in as police minister and still held his role as water and sanitation minister.

“I didn’t know whether he was going to be able to deal with administrative tasks as he was a policeman,” Mkhwanazi said. “On the other hand, I was concerned about whether he would be able to give the minister advice (on the water and sanitation ministry), but then I found out it was in the police.”

He said Nkabinde’s appointment as chief of staff was a drastic move from a junior to a top position.

“He did not know anything about the role; that’s why he called me to ask what it entailed. The only thing Nkabinde knew was a police docket. When he was invited to be chief of staff, it was a shock to him, but I ended up telling him about the amount of money he would be making in that position.”

He added that another former chief of staff confirmed the same thing to him and said Nkabinde shared the same sentiment with him.

Mkhwanazi said Nkabinde told him he met Mchunu when he was working in criminal investigations at Ipid, where Mchunu was possibly implicated in the case.

“I didn’t believe much of what he told me, but he mentioned that there was a death of someone in KZN, and the minister at the time was accused of interfering with the destruction of evidence when he was premier. As for why they never arrested him, I don’t have the details.

“That’s what brought them together and how the relationship came about. That made me realise that the relationship between him and the minister formed out of an investigation that Nkabinde was conducting because, at the time, Nkabinde was not a politician.”

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