By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider 

Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has defended his decision to disband the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) when answering questions regarding the allegations made against him by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lt-Gen Nhanhla Mkhwanazi, in Parliament. 

He had said to Parliament that task teams are meant to have a lifespan and explained that despite the funding that task teams receive that it does not mean that they have to operate over long spans of time.

Evidence leader, Advocate Norman Arendse, had directed the questions to Mchunu regarding the unlawful disbandment of the PKTT which is mainly based in KwaZulu-Natal as well as the speculative political motivations behind it. 

Mchunu explained that the disbandment of the PKTT was for the benefit of the country as a whole. “Remember, by the time we approved the structure, we had the imperatives of the seventh administration, which, among others, says you need to make the people of South Africa, all of them, feel safe, not some of them somewhere” Mchunu told Parliament.

Mchunu continued to explain that other units are suffering due to the existence of the PKTT. “They are going to sit and not do their work because the Political Killings Task Team is there. That’s what you’re finding in Gauteng, for instance” Mchunu explained.

“Every financial year the PKTT had to be extended as suggested. It is not surprising that National Commissioner Fannie Masemola and KwaZulu-Natal Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi did not mention the issue of the extension because they knew very well that post 2022, after the departure of General Sithole, no extensions were sought nor granted for the continuation of the PKTT. That renders the expenditure irregular under the public finance management act” said Mchunu.

 Mchunu had made mention that suspended Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya had also expressed concern over the failure to implement the previous work studies that had been conducted.

 “It is common knowledge that in September 2024, the PKTT was still fully operational and not incorporated into the murder and robbery unit as recommended in at least two work studies. On 5 June 2025, General Masemola, for reasons only known to him, signed this work study a year after it was presented to him”