Mchunu disbanded political killings task team as police commissioner Masemola started leave

The disbandment of the political killings task team strangely coincided with the annual leave of national police commissioner Fannie Masemola, deputy commissioner for visible policing Tebello Mosikili told parliament’s ad hoc committee on Tuesday.

Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu sent out the controversial disbandment letter on 31 December 2024, the date Masemola started his leave. Mosikili acted as police commissioner until 14 January 2024. 

On Tuesday, Mosikili said the letter was sent during the festive season police visibility campaign and that Mchunu never mentioned plans to disband the task team during the exercise.

“At the time it was when we were at the apex of the festive season … Therefore a week prior to the 31st, myself, the national commissioner of the South African Police Service [Masemola] and the minister of police [Mchunu], we were clubbed together to visit three provinces,” she told legislators on the committee.

The campaign visited the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and ended in KwaZulu-Natal before they “parted ways with the minister on the 28th”, she said.

Two days later, when she was back in Pretoria, Mosikili learnt about Mchunu’s sudden letter and had to respond to it while overseeing the visibility campaign which had moved to Gauteng. She said the timing of the letter was suspect as it coincided with Masemola’s leave and during a busy festive season campaign. 

“I only became aware of the email on the 2nd of January when I was back at the office,” she said, adding that she received a media query from the spokesperson to respond to the letter seen on social media. Once the letter was confirmed as official, Mosikili said she took time to study it.

“To be honest and frank, I became confused. I was unsure, I was also surprised and I questioned the authenticity of the directive as I could not believe the content, and precisely because of the tone of the letter,” she said.

“For me it was unexpected, and in particular, [with] the nation commissioner we had discussions on matters to attend to, and the date was just too close from the time that the national commissioner was to start the leave…

“And I took time to interrogate, looking at various other issues that this directive will have, how it was conveyed, and I think, most importantly the fact that it already leaked to the media when we have not yet dealt with the matter internally.”

Mosikili said while task teams faced challenges in intervening with provincial policing, they would continue to form a significant part of police operations in the long-term. 

“Many factors that contribute to the establishment of the task teams: One being the local capacity might not be adequate. That’s number one,” she said.

“Number two, at times there are issues that we cannot run away from as we are living in South Africa and from time to time we hear issues of collusions and maybe the reluctance of local policing capacity to deal with the matter.”

The disbanded task team was made up of detectives from outside KwaZulu-Natal and divided into four teams to work at different districts where political killings were rife. There were plans to expand the unit to Limpopo and Gauteng, Mosikili said. 

There are currently ongoing interventions elsewhere in the country, including the Western Cape, Mosikili said, adding that she doubted task teams would be disbanded any time soon. She added that she disagreed with the methods of those advocating to strengthen the murder and robbery unit to replace the task team. 

Suspended deputy national police commissioner for crime detection Shadrack Sibiya has argued that he intended to capacitate the murder and robbery unit to perform the same function as the task team and investigate broader crime violence. 

KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi accused Sibiya of colluding with cartels and of removing 121 dockets from the political killings task team. The dockets were subsequently returned by acting police minister Firoz Cachalia.

On Tuesday, Mosikili said the demobilisation of task teams normally occurs after extensive consultation, adding that in the instance of the KwaZulu-Natal team, the administrative repercussions were not considered. 

“Overeaching in collecting dockets will affect operations in closing up interventions in terms of the protocols that need to be followed to demoralise the team as agreed,” she said.