Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, memorably clad in task force fatigues and bristling for a fight, dropped the biggest political bombshell of 2025.
It was July 6. Head of crime intelligence Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo had just been arrested by the anti-corruption Investigating Directorate (ID) and there were suggestions that Mkhwanazi himself was under scrutiny by his colleagues in the police.
At the end of December police minister Senzo Mchunu had issued a directive that the political killings task team (PKTT), under Mkhwanazi’s command but led by Khumalo as project leader, be disbanded.
Mchunu, an ANC bigwig whose star was on the rise at the time, had been moved from water & sanitation to the police portfolio after the May 2024 elections. This was undoubtedly a promotion. He was a favourite of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s and was a potential successor in the eyes of Ramaphosa’s allies.
Members of the Gauteng organised crime unit, who were leading an investigation into a criminal cartel in the province but facing substantial internal resistance, were in hiding, fearing for their lives.
Mkhwanazi had briefed his boss, police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola, about his strategy against a formidable foe: his own police comrades. He calculated that sunlight was the best disinfectant for the disease spreading through the criminal justice system.
“Yes, sometimes law can stand in the way of achieving justice, we must choose justice,” he said, signing off his statement at the media briefing in July.
He had made startling allegations, warning of the infiltration by sophisticated organised crime networks into every facet of the criminal justice system and even the police ministry itself.
Mkhwanazi’s briefing was carefully choreographed and executed for maximum effect: apart from the military-style get-up, he was surrounded by masked task force colleagues toting automatic weapons. Eleven KZN district police commissioners sat in rows next to the podium, openly backing him.
He alleged that criminal cartels had infiltrated the police, the National Prosecuting Authority, the judiciary and correctional services, and that Mchunu was in their pocket thanks to dubious middleman Brown Mogotsi.
The directive to disband the PKTT was Mchunu’s first significant decision as police minister and sent shock waves through the police force. It was viewed as an attempt to neutralise police action against the crime cartels.
In the frenzied aftermath of the Mkhwanazi briefing, Ramaphosa put Mchunu on “special leave” and set up the commission of inquiry headed by respected retired Constitutional Court justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga. Parliament launched a parallel ad hoc committee to probe the same allegations.
If you are open to a possible review, which could have resulted in the reversal of the decision, what was the big rush? What was the big rush? What was the big rush, minister?
— Mbuyiseli Madlanga
A separate case of defeating the ends of justice was opened and is under investigation by the SAPS itself.
The Madlanga commission this week handed its interim report to Ramaphosa. While the commission was keeping mum on its contents, it is likely that its recommendations include the axing of Mchunu, who appeared before the commission in the first week of December.
He obfuscated and tried to muddy the waters as he testified about the PKTT decision, exactly as he had done earlier when he appeared before parliament’s ad hoc committee. He referred to unrelated processes and a 2019 SAPS work study, which he tried to massage into a justification for the disbandment.
However, trenchant questioning by Madlanga himself made clear that Mchunu was grasping at straws. In the space of just five questions the judge exposed the minister, showing that there was a strong possibility that he failed to provide his real motives for disbanding the team in the voluminous statement he made to the commission and that he was trying to hide them.
It was almost painful to watch as Mchunu withered under Madlanga’s scrutiny.
“Minister, did you ever hold a meeting and have a discussion with the national commissioner of police and possibly other senior SAPS members with the agenda item being the disbandment of the PKTT? It does not matter if there were possibly other agenda items, but the disbandment of the PKTT being a focal point.
“Did you ever have such a meeting?” Madlanga asked.
Mchunu conceded that a “review” of certain SAPS capabilities such as the PKTT was discussed at two meetings in November but did not touch on disbanding the unit.
“Minister, what was the relationship, working relationship, of course, between you and the national commissioner from the time you became minister of police …. What was the working relationship like between the two of you?” Madlanga continued.
Mchunu replied: “It was what I could describe as a very good relationship.”
“Now, on December 31 2024, you surprise everybody within SAPS, in particular the top management, with your decision of that day and you do this having a very good working relationship with the national commissioner of police.
“You accept that that is effectively what you did? You, as it were, if I were to be metaphorical, drop a bomb like that.”
Mchunu said he was open to reviewing his PKTT decision.
“If you are open to a review, what was the big rush?” Madlanga shot back.
Mchunu hesitated and asked Madlanga to repeat the question.
“If you are open to a possible review, which could have resulted in the reversal of the decision, what was the big rush? What was the big rush? What was the big rush, minister?”
Mchunu launched into a lengthy explanation, to which Madlanga replied: “Yes, I still do not understand what explains the big rush, especially if you say that you were open to being convinced that the decision ought not to have been taken. Why start with a decision and await a possible reversal if you are convinced? It just gives me the sense that you were in a terrible rush.”
The evidence received by the commission so far explains the rush. The 27 witnesses who have testified so far all backed up Mkhwanazi’s July accusation, intentionally or not.
The Gauteng organised crime unit was investigating the murder of Armand Swart, an engineer at Q-Tech, which was a long-standing supplier to Transnet. He had been killed in a case of mistaken identity — the intended victim was a whistleblower.
The police team, during their investigation, encountered severe difficulties, especially after the arrest of former police officer Michael Pule Tau. Ballistics tests linked a weapon confiscated during the arrest to three other high-profile killings dating to 2021.
Unsettling experiences during the investigation into the Swart killing led the Gauteng organised crime unit to ask the PKTT for help, and Mkhwanazi assigned 10 officers, led by Khumalo, to the case.
In December last year, the team arrested Katiso Molefe for the Swart murder and raided the home of Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala. Evidence by Khumalo at the commission indicated that the two men are part of a drug cartel dubbed “the Big Five”.
During the Molefe arrest, members of the Hawks interfered, causing deep consternation among the detectives conducting the investigation. There was an incorrect perception that it was the PKTT, not the Gauteng organised crime unit, that was driving the case — and Mchunu issued his infamous directive.
He also froze all vacant posts within crime intelligence. The division’s head, Khumalo, is facing a criminal charge, launched by the ID, over the hiring of an IT expert from BMW — an infringement of HR policy at most.
The current phase of the commission, the second, will allow all those against whom allegations have been made to respond. After that, Mkhwanazi and others could return for further questioning, clarity or rebuttal.
Mchunu might be in line to be the first casualty of the commission, but he would not be the last.
Mkhwanazi’s allegations are set to be interrogated well into 2026 — a crucial election year. His July 6 briefing lasted just 90 minutes, but it will reverberate for years to come.
