By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider
Kwa-Zulu Natal provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has accused the Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, for being affiliated with gangs as well as meddling in police investigations that have to do with politically motivated murders.
On Sunday 6 July, at a press briefing in Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) Mkhwanazi had made the explosive allegations against the Minister of police which have caused a frenzy with the public demanding answers for these allegations. Commissioner Mkhwanazi alleges that the Minister of Police was receiving financial support from an alleged corrupt businessman in order to fund his political prosperities.
Minister Mchunu has denied these allegations as this has caught the immediate attention of President Cyril Ramphosa as he has stated that this is of “grave national security concern”. Mkhwanazi has laid out a detailed account of what led up to a task force which was created to investigate a series of political murders mainly happening in KZN back in 2018, and has since been disbanded.
General Mkhwanazi has stated that the task force had uncovered links to high-profile people, politicians, police officials and various businessmen being linked to a drug cartel, and this being the reason that the task force was disbanded. Minister Mchunu has expressed that his reasoning for dissolving the task force is because it was not adding any real value to the province, leaving many cases unsolved.
121 case files had been allegedly removed from the unit according to General Mkhwanazi without authorisation from his boss National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola at the Minister’s request. “These case dockets have, since March, been sitting at the head office ever since without any investigation work done on them. Five of these dockets already had instructions to effect arrests.” said General Mkhwanazi at the press briefing.
Businessman Vusimuzi Matlala had a lucrative contract with police but was nullified due to an attempted murder back in May. General Mkhwanazi had shared text messages as well as payment being allegedly made by Matala as evidence to this claim.
Minister Mchunu has since bitten back against the allegations and with Mpho Kwinika General Secretary of the independent policing union of South Africa weighing in on the issue via an interview with IOL stating ; “Look, Mkhwanazi is in trouble. Mkhwanazi must prove that indeed there is crime committed by those senior officials he has implicated, failing which the law is going to be against him. In the police, we have a policy that deals with communications. Before you communicate anything to the public you must get permission from the national commission of police.”