The chief of staff in the police ministry, Cedrick Nkabinde, has explained his reason for recording KZN police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
The recording was played in parliament by the suspended police minister, Senzo Mchunu, in his testimony on October 17 before the ad hoc committee probing allegations of corruption in the criminal justice system.
Mchunu told the committee that Nkabinde had informed him of alleged threats by Mkhwanazi. According to Nkabinde, Mkhwanazi was “angry” upon learning of Mchunu’s letter ordering the disbandment of the political killings task team (PKTT) and allegedly threatened to “fight back” if Mchunu did not withdraw the letter.
Nkabinde returned to parliament on Wednesday to continue his testimony. He told the committee that Mkhwanazi first made the threats on January 2 during a private conversation where Mkhwanazi was questioning the letter to disband the PKTT.
“He mentioned other things like there will be fight-backs, and if the minister is clean, they’re going to dig him from when he was a premier,” Nkabinde said. “It was those things Mkhwanazi alluded to me.”
He said he informed Mchunu about the conversation, and the minister responded, “These are serious threats. You should consider recording him.”
Nkabinde further explained that after their January 2 conversation, Mkhwanazi forwarded him a Facebook message on WhatsApp that purported to be a conversation between the two of them.
Mkhwanazi allegedly asked Nkabinde how their private conversation got leaked when only the two of them knew about it. However, Nkabinde asserted that the content of the Facebook message was false and did not reflect their actual conversation.
“Then we started to deliberate if someone was listening to our phones. He [Mkhwanazi] said maybe someone is listening to us. But I said no-one was because the content of the message was wrong.”
Nkabinde testified that it was for this reason — to avoid false information being spread about their discussions — that he decided to record Mkhwanazi.
DA MP Ian Cameron asked Nkabinde if he was instructed to record Mkhwanazi. Nkabinde maintained that it was his own decision to make the recording. He confirmed that he never informed Mkhwanazi that he was being recorded and that no-one had authorised it. “I took that decision,” he stressed.
Cameron then asked, “You knew recording someone without their knowledge is a privacy violation?”
Nkabinde responded, “I knew I wasn’t breaking any law if I was part of that conversation.”
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