Much like the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Advocate Elaine Harrison, Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale said he learned about the disbandment of the political killings task team (PKTT) on social media.
Mathale appeared before the ad hoc committee on Tuesday to discuss KZN police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s allegations and testified about the events leading up to Mchunu’s disbandment directive on 31 December 2025.
The deputy minister agreed with Mchunu’s testimony that he had discussed the possible disbandment of the team during meetings in November.
“He [Mchunu] did raise the matter that it must be de-established, and we had discussions around that. Yes, we did talk about strengthening murder and robbery, because that’s our biggest problem,” he said.
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However, the resolutions at those meetings with the deputy ministers were that the minister would consult further with National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola.
These consultations never took place, as previously confirmed by Mkhwanazi, Masemola and Mchunu.
“We have had discussions, and we have agreed on various occasions that there are issues that the minister should engage with the national commissioner and process them so that by the time they come to us, they will have processed those issues,” said Mathale.
“There are many instances where we have had meetings and agreed that the two of them must, from time to time, have engagement outside ourselves because the absence of that will lead to misunderstandings amongst them, which can create a problem for us. And we are here now, I think, because of that.”
He said during these meetings, the effectiveness of the PKTT was never in doubt.
Mathale on PKTT disbandment
Mathale further told parliament that he learned of the PKTT’s disbandment on social media, as did the rest of the country.
At first, he believed the letter was fake until Mchunu called him early in January to confirm that he had indeed written it.
Mathale also had a different interpretation of the words “immediate effect”.
“That’s not the right way [to find out]. We have been interacting all along about everything to do with policing, but this specific one, that’s how we learned about it, unfortunately,” said Mathale.
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“I didn’t understand what could have motivated him to pen such a letter, which he did. I saw it, and I read it, and I had a problem because the way it was written, it was very difficult to comprehend how that is going to be realised, the content of the letter, because it was saying that the PKTT is disbanded with immediate effect, and that a close-up report must be submitted or a plan by 20 January, and then a close-up report by the end of the month.
“If something is immediate, it’s immediate. It is disbanded, and then I need reports on this and that date. It is problematic.
“The only time that he spoke to me was after the letter was out, and he was saying, ‘Yes, I’ve penned the letter, don’t be surprised’. He didn’t consult. The only time that he spoke to me was after the letter was out.”
Mchunu ‘angry’
The PKTT was never immediately disbanded, however, as it still exists. In fact, the team took on another case, which Masemola testified made Mchunu “very angry”.
One of the meetings in March was allegedly abruptly ended after Mchunu expressed his anger over the additional case the team had taken on, contrary to his directive.
“What made him angry was that in the proposed plan somewhere, we said the PKTT is not going to take further cases, and when you look at the figures, you could see that there is an increase in the work of the PKTT, because they did take over a case of Mandeni,” said Masemola.
“The minister was angry about that. It was quite strange. It was the first time in my career to see a minister angry that police have done a good job, because here, police have arrested somebody who is linked to the killing of a councillor, and he was angry that they took over this target; they didn’t make the arrest.”
Although Mathale did not prefer to use the words “very angry” to describe Mchunu’s reaction to the additional work, he did concede that the minister was dissatisfied.
“He was dissatisfied, yes,” he said.
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