On July 6, Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi called a media briefing where he made explosive allegations of political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system.
The media conference took nearly two hours unpacking the issues of criminality affecting, in particular, the functioning of the SA Police Services (SAPS).
It was in response to the letter written by now-suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu, who disbanded the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT).
In the briefing, Mkhwanazi started by giving background about the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), which was composed of five ministries appointed in 2018 by President Cyril Ramaphosa to deal with the political killings in KwaZulu-Natal.
There was apparently a political killings task team in operation before the appointment of the IMC in 2018.
However, after its appointment, the IMC found that it was compromised and did not have any investigation and prosecutorial plan or strategy.
It was also found that there was little or no progress in the investigation and prosecution of these cases.
This led to a decision by the IMC to establish a nationally integrated multidisciplinary task team which consisted of the SAPS and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), supported by both state security and correctional services, which commenced its work in July 2018 to implement a prosecution-driven investigation strategy.
Mkhwanazi said this strategy resulted in an excellent performance by the PKTT.
Given this background, it was his contention that it was erroneous for the minister to disband the PKTT without consulting other ministers within the IMC.
There was a debate among political analysts and commentators that Mkhwanazi got it wrong as the IMC was appointed during the sixth administration and ceased to exist after the sixth administration was dissolved.
It was argued that the non-appointment of the IMC during the seventh administration left a vacuum and therefore it was within Mchunu’s right as a police minister to dissolve the PKTT.
Mkhwanazi also alleged there was an organised crime syndicate controlled in Gauteng but operating in the rest of the country and neighbouring countries.
He alleged that this syndicate involved, among others, politicians currently serving in parliament, law enforcement officers including members of the SAPS, the Metro Police and correctional services.
It allegedly included prosecutors in Gauteng, the judiciary and all these are controlled by the drug cartel as well as businesspeople in Gauteng.
He alleged further that businessman Brown Mogotsi was an associate of Mchunu.
An analysis of electronic communication of an arrested individual, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, and Mogotsi suggested that Mogotsi knew about the disbandment of the PKTT on January 1 2025 after the letter was issued the previous day, December 31, when most of the SAPS members including the national commissioner did not know about it, he alleged.
He alleged that further analysis of the chats indicated that Matlala was financially supporting the police minister and Mogotsi’s political endeavours.
He said this was supported by evidence of conversations and the proof of payments of guests for January 8th travelling costs and the gala dinner in Cape Town, which was done in 2025.
The multitude of allegations prompted Ramaphosa to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry headed by retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga to investigate them.
Due to the seriousness of the allegations, on July 9 2025, National Assembly speaker Thoko Didiza requested the portfolio committees on police and justice and constitutional development to consider the matter in terms of their respective mandates.
On July 16, the two committees agreed that the establishment of an ad hoc committee would be the most viable mechanism to deal with the matter.
This was duly done.
These two processes are running concurrently and I will be discussing the Mkhwanazi allegation in relation to the evidence given to the parliamentary committee so far.
The interesting testimonies to watch were those of Mchunu and former police minister Bheki Cele.
The testimony of Mchunu was not interesting as he was at the centre of the allegations and it was expected of him to be defensive.
As I listened to Cele, I came to the conclusion that he was trying his level best to be truthful in his testimony.
He has corroborated Mkhwanazi in several critical areas.
In relation to the alleged existence of an organised crime syndicate controlled by drug cartels as well as businesspeople and its infiltration of key criminal justice system role-players involving politicians, law enforcement from the SAPS and the Metro Police division, correctional services, the NPA and the judiciary, Cele said these concerns were already suggested by justice Daniel Thulare in a judgment discussing the possible infiltration of the SAPS, the NPA and the judiciary by members of the 28 gang.
He suggested that though the judgment was about the Western Cape, the level of infiltration by criminal syndicates, as suggested by Thulare and later by Mkhwanazi, was a problem that existed throughout the country and was not limited to certain provinces or areas.
He suggested that the ad hoc committee should scrutinise the issue of criminal infiltration across the entire justice cluster and that it could not be limited to examining policing issues alone.
In regard to the existence or non-existence of the PKTT, Cele quoted the resolutions of the IMC in its meeting held on September 5 2023 where, among other resolutions, it was agreed that the PKTT could not be dissolved and must continue.
He argued that the PKTT was established by the IMC under the leadership of the president and, therefore, only the IMC could disestablish it.
In regard to whether the IMC still existed under the seventh administration, he submitted that when the president established the IMC in 2018, it consisted of ministries and not the political incumbents who might change with each administration.
He argued that the IMC still existed in the seventh administration.
He argued further that the minister of police had to consult the IMC before deciding to disband the PKTT.
Mkhwanazi argued during his testimony that the letter of December 31 2024 was not written by the police minister.
He said someone who did not understand the intricacies relating to the formation of the PKTT had written the letter on behalf of the minister.
Mchunu denied this and submitted that he wrote the letter himself and asked his adviser to review it on its compliance with the constitutional framework.
Cele testified that the wording of the letter was a replica of a letter dated October 24 2024 written by Prof Mary de Haas to Mchunu demanding the immediate disbandment of the PKTT.
In regard to the alleged corrupt relationship between Mchunu and Mogotsi, and between Mogotsi and Matlala, Cele has somewhat corroborated this allegation.
He testified that he met Matlala through Bongani “Mabonga” Mpungose, the son of an acquaintance from Nongoma who was involved in the taxi industry.
He said in the meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Durban in December 2024, Matlala told him that he believed that he was being used in two ways.
The first was that Matlala told him that he had been approached to fund a “project” by Mchunu who aimed to be the ANC president or deputy president.
Matlala told him that he had met Mogotsi and Mchunu to discuss this project which he was asked to fund.
He was told that if he was to work well with them on the project, he had to keep far away from Cele and former president Jacob Zuma.
This revelation, if proven true, would confirm that there was indeed a corrupt relationship between the trio.
The second way in which Matlala was allegedly being used is a discussion for another article.
These corroborative statements are a vindication of Mkhwanazi’s media briefing.
However, they were nearly clouded by his withdrawal of some allegations that he had made against Cele.
Some commentators applauded him for the withdrawal when it came to his attention that the members of his team had made a mistake in implicating Cele, who immediately accepted Mkhwanazi’s apology.
Dr Makhosandile Kwaza is an auditor and a political commentator. He writes in his personal capacity.
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