Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia has criticised suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu’s decision to disband the political killings task team (PKTT), saying he couldn’t understand his reasons.
Mchunu sent the directive to disband the task team to national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola on December 31, a decision that allegedly fell outside his mandate.
In the letter, Mchunu said the task team was no longer required and that it was not adding any value to policing in SA. He directed Masemola to disband the task team immediately and submit a preliminary report on January 20, followed by a closing report later in January.
His actions were criticised and led to him being placed on special leave amid investigations of alleged political interference in police investigations.
Appearing before parliament’s ad hoc committee, Cachalia said when he was appointed to Mchunu’s position in July, he tried to understand what informed his predecessor’s decision.
“I couldn’t understand the reasons for the disbandment of the task team,” Cachalia said. “To take such an important decision required sound reasoning. The problems of political killings were an ongoing issue that, in the run-up to local government elections, were likely to become worse — and the fact that whistle-blowers were increasingly vulnerable in our society included public officials, not only politicians.”
We can learn from the good practices of the political killings task team because their work was based on an integrated approach to the challenge, which brings together investigators and prosecutors
— Firoz Cachalia, acting police minister
He said he reached out to Masemola to seek clarity on what was happening with the PKTT cases, but couldn’t get any clarity, as Masemola wasn’t consistent in what he communicated.
“When I saw the statement Masemola made in public that the dockets had been transferred back to KZN, that was inconsistent with my understanding of what he had conveyed to me. I was concerned about this matter because it was in the public domain and was worried about what happened with the matter and the dockets.
“It took the two of us some time to get to a position where I understood what he was saying — but after listening to his testimony, I understand.”
In his previous testimony before the committee, Mchunu defended his decision to send the directive, saying he was well within his constitutional prerogative to do so. He said part of the reason for disbanding the PKTT was due to budget constraints and the need for optimisation to allocate more resources to combat other crimes in the country instead of only focusing on political killings “in one corner of the country”.
Cachalia said the nation could learn from the work of the task team to deal with issues of organised crime and cartels.
“What we need is a strategy to fight organised crime that is not restricted to political killings. The problem is a deeper one now, and as a nation we need to respond to the issue of cartels infiltrating our institutions.
“It’s now a national question, and we can learn from the good practices of the political killings task team because their work was based on an integrated approach to the challenge, which brings together investigators and prosecutors.”
TimesLIVE
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