Tensions rise between Acting Police Minister and National Police Commissioner over KwaZulu-Natal Task Team

Tensions between Acting Police Minister Professor Firoz Cachalia and National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola surfaced to the public this week over the revival of the KwaZulu-Natal Police Killings Task Team’s investigation. 

Cachalia expressed displeasure in a statement issued on Friday regarding Masemola’s announcement that 121 dockets would soon be returned to the task team.

The now-suspended Police Minister, Senzo Mchunu, disbanded the team, which was formed in 2019 to investigate and execute arrests in political killings as part of implementing the Moerane Commission’s recommendations.

Cachalia indicated that Masemola revived the team’s investigation without consulting him, and that he had kept him in the dark about the status of the team. 

In the statement, Cachalia is quoted as expressing concern about Masemola announcing the continuation of the team’s investigations instead of waiting for the Constitutional Court’s Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga Judicial Commission of Inquiry to first investigate KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s political interference allegation.

“It is a concern, therefore, that steps are being taken in relation to this matter before the commission has had a chance to investigate the issues surrounding the task team. 

“I have requested the National Commissioner to submit his report without further delay,” read the statement.

The statement further stated that soon after being appointed as acting minister by President Cyril Ramaphosa on July 13, Cachalia requested Masemola to furnish him with a detailed report on the task team.   

“A report which is yet to be submitted,” the statement read. 

Masemola told the media at the 27th INTERPOL African Region Conference in Cape Town this week that the team would resume its investigations and would have additional investigators. 

The dockets of serious offence cases were removed from the team and placed under the care of Deputy Commissioner for Crime Detection, General Shadrack Sibiya, who is also on suspension, and were reportedly kept in his office without cases being investigated.

In July, Mkhwanazi alleged that there was political interference in the work of the task team and also accused Mchunu of having a relationship with drug dealers who were the target of the team in Gauteng. 

This led to Ramaphosa suspending Mchunu and appointing the commission, which is expected to begin its work on Monday after a delay due to logistical problems.

The task team has been hailed for making arrests in the murder of political figures and traditional leaders, such as that of former ANC Youth League secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa, AmaNxamalala’s head of izinduna Qalokunye Zuma, and uMngeni Municipality’s DA councillor Nhlalayenza Ndlovu. 

Inkosi Simphiwe Zuma of Amaxamalala Tribal Authority has been charged in connection with Qalokunye Zuma and Ndlovu’s murders. 

The team’s work has also been linked to 37-year-old Sibusiso Ncengwa’s sentence to an effective 25 years' imprisonment by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on July 7 for Magaqa’s murder.

Masemola said that although the team was in the process of closing down, it was still investigating cases in KwaZulu-Natal and also assisting in Gauteng.  

“We will be beefing up the team with extra investigators,” said Masemola. 

“We have a number of unresolved cases in Gauteng that are murder cases of politicians and taxi-related cases that are quite complex (and) very complicated; it is not easy to investigate them, so you really won’t expect arrests soon in those dockets,” said Masemola.

Violence monitor Mary De Haas accused Masemola of breaking the law by returning the dockets to the team, saying Mchunu, as a minister, was within his rights to disband it. 

“This was a ministerial task team and not set up by him. Masemola has no authority to do anything about it when he is being told to disband it,” said De Haas.

De Haas told this reporter on Friday that the teams should remain disbanded. 

“Absolutely, it must go. They get extra money and sleep in hotels during deployments, which we are paying for,” said De Haas.

She also shot down the performance of the team. 

“They have very few successes. They were boasting about the recent conviction, but there are 10 cases on the lower South Coast, where there is ample evidence; they did not take those cases,” said De Haas. 

EFF national spokesperson Sinawo Thambo accused Cachalia of undermining the police’s urgent work of investigating political killings in KwaZulu-Natal.

“Masemola’s decision was a direct attempt to undo obstruction and ensure that investigations, which had been stalled, could resume. 

“Cachalia has used his first days in office not to strengthen the fight against crime, but to delay and frustrate it,” said Thambo.

DA spokesperson Lisa‐Maré Schickerling said the task team could not wait for both the judicial inquiry and Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee to complete their parallel investigations into Mkhwanazi’s claims.

“We can see the return of the dockets as a step toward restoring investigation continuity and advancing justice for the victim. 

“In the Ad Hoc Committee, we only set the terms of reference; we have not done anything else. We had no meeting after that.

“Yesterday, we were supposed to get feedback about when our next meeting will take place, when we will be seeing the first witness, which is Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, but we have not had any feedback regarding that, and we are still waiting to hear when that first meeting will take place,” she said.

Schickerling said that while both investigations into Mkhwanazi’s investigation were yet to start, the task team must carry on with its investigation and ensure that suspects are arrested.

uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said the removal of the dockets from the task team was a deliberate attempt to derail investigations into politically motivated killings. 

“And while we acknowledge their return, we remain gravely concerned that the integrity of these dockets may have already been compromised. 

“We are cautiously optimistic that their reinstatement will lead to long-overdue arrests and meaningful prosecutions,” said Ndhlela.

University of KwaZulu-Natal political analyst Zakhele Ndlovu said there were “definitely” tensions between Cachalia and Masemola. 

“If you (Cachalia) criticise him (Masemola) in public, and also for Masemola to take that decision without consulting the acting minister shows that there is no cooperation between them, there is no spirit of working together.

“It shows that things are not well between the two of them and they are not on the same page,” said Ndlovu.

bongani.hans@inl.co.za