The MKP in the Eastern Cape has urged the current crop of police officers to follow in the footsteps of KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and speak up and act against corruption in the service.
The party has been on a national campaign in support of Mkhwanazi after his bombshell revelations during a media conference a week ago where he alleged corruption inside the police and implicating police minister Senzo Mchunu.
He also implicated the deputy national police commissioner for crime detection, Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, who was asked on Tuesday by national police commissioner Fannie Masemolato take a leave of absence.
MKP supporters in the province will be embarking on a #HandsoffMkhwanazi march on Wednesday morning in Qonce.
Party supporters are expected to march from the Victoria Mxenge Grounds in Qonce to the provincial police headquarters in Zwelitsha.
According to MKP BCM co-ordinator Mzwandile Vaaiboom, this is in support of Mkhwanazi and a rejection of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to put Mchunu on special leave.
“We are going there to give our support to Mkhwanazi,” he said.
“We are urging other such police officers to follow suit in what Mkhwanazi is doing.
“The police are here to prevent, combat and investigate crime — so what was said about the political killings showed us the problems we are facing as a country as some cases ended up not being investigated.”
Mkhwanazi accused Mchunu of interfering with police investigations and of overstepping his role when he ordered the disbandment of the political killings task team in December 2024.
Mkhwanazi also claimed that disbanding the political killings task team had been decided unilaterally by the national office, without any input from the KZN police leadership.
The task team had been probing a number of politically motivated killings in the province.
These included the murders of councillors and whistle-blowers.
Ramaphosa placed Mchunu on special leave on Sunday, replacing him with Prof Firoz Cachalia, who will take up the acting post in August.
The president also announced that he had established a judicial commission of inquiry to be chaired by acting deputy chief justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga to investigate allegations relating to the infiltration of law enforcement, intelligence and associated institutions in the criminal justice system by criminal syndicates.
However, Vaaiboom said: “We reject this commission because it is just a waste of money and we see it as a parallel process to what the police are doing.
“And the police are fully capable of investigating these charges, where they will be taken to court thereafter.
“Now when a case is opened and you do something else on the side [the president] yet there is no additional budget for the police is a problem.”
He said the party would hand over a petition calling for Mchunu to be criminally prosecuted.
The party laid criminal charges against Mchunu and Sibiya at the Durban Central police station last week.
Mchunu is accused of violating parliamentary laws by knowingly providing false information to parliament regarding his relationship with businessman Brown Mogotsi.
MKP’s deputy co-ordinator in the Chris Hani district, Zukile Mbotoloshi, said Mchunu must be fully accountable to parliament over his relations with Mogotsi and further called for Ramaphosa to resign with immediate effect over his approach to the matter.
“We call upon parliament to enforce lifestyle audits for all members of the executive across all government spheres and state entities.
“Mkhwanazi is also a whistle-blower. He must be allocated enough space, resources and time to fully prepare his evidence,” he said.
Daily Dispatch
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