Suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu told theMadlanga commissionhe had acted within the law when he issued adirective to disband a task team on political killings. “I wrote the directive, and I take full responsibility for that. I was not influenced by anyone anywhere, not by phone, not by anything,” Mchunu said, adding that he wanted to see a “qualitative difference” within the South African Police Service (SAPS) during his six months in office.
His instruction for the task team’s immediate disbandment “was not like switching off”, he added, telling the commission: “I understood that immediately denotes a process which the national commissioner [Fannie Masemola] needs to respond to.” While he had acted independently, Mchunu said he also consulted his special adviser. “As I wrote that directive, I was within the constitution and legislative framework, but I did consult special adviser advocate Vusi Pikoli, who then indicated comfort in terms of the exercise of that responsibility.” He said he consulted Pikoli on the day he issued the directive, but this followed earlier discussions about the scope of the police minister’s powers. “The complaints from various complainants varied in content and emphasis, but they shared common themes, namely unmonitored task team operation resulting in grave human rights abuses,” Mchunu said.
There were “unclear reporting lines in terms of who these task teams report to and allegations of overreach, duplication of functions and significant strain on SAPS resources”, he said. Complaints came from “people who knew one or two things about police and who felt a concern of one kind or another about policing in the country”. They also included human resources (HR) allegations “alleging some internal abuses within police and some within [the political killings task team] and instances of criminality”.
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Mchunu testified that Lieutenant General Samson Sihlabane had complained about the task team, which theDeputy Police Minister, Cassel Mathale, resolved on his instruction. He referred to an internal SAPS report recommending that task teams undergo an impact analysis to assess feasibility. He also said a 2020 SAPS structure “clearly indicates that the murder and robbery did exist as a section”.
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