Professor Mary De Haas, a veteran violence- and police monitor, has urged Police Minister Senzo Mchunu to dissolve the ineffective Political Killings Task Team and establish independent oversight. De Haas warns that the task team misuses SAPS resources, shields politicians, and instils fear among victims.
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By Chris Steyn
The dark triad of political killings, political interference, and political policing have been laid bare in a letter with detailed case studies sent to Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Parliament.
It was compiled by Professor Mary De Haas who has been monitoring and researching political violence in Kwa-Zulu-Natal for 40 years – and has kept detailed records covering that period.
In her latest letter to the Minister she implores him to instruct SAPS National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola to immediately disband the Political Killings Task Team, send its investigators back to detective units – and set up a completely independent oversight body.
She also calls for an immediate end to the deployment of General Dumisani Khumalo – who heads the Crime Intelligence Service (CIS) – to this task team “which he did not have the qualifications and experience to command in the first place”.
Professor De Haas describes how, at the end of 2022, General Khumalo was appointed by then Minister Cele to head SAPS Crime Intelligence, “having no training or experience in that field either, so he currently occupies both positions”.
She asks: “Why has he been allowed to occupy both these positions, for neither of which he has qualifications, at the same time?”
In answering, she informs the Minister that former disgraced SAPS National Commissioner Bheki Cele, “who is himself implicated in at least two serious criminal cases which have been opened”, is believed to have arranged the placement of Khumalo in the Political Killings Task Team – “despite his never having had experience as a detective (he seems to have also handled resources and to have run up huge operating expenses according to various sources).”
She adds: “He became its head and was promoted to the rank of General, which was a gross travesty of justice”.
Professor De Haas urges the establishment of a judicial oversight body to investigate the dockets taken by the task team, including the three matters she provides details of in the annexures.
“You will note that in the three cases detailed in the annexures, there are other common themes, all linked in one way or another to political interference by former Police Minister Cele.
“It goes without saying that any political interference whatsoever in matters relating to justice is in complete contempt of Constitutional principles about impartiality. The allegations in the annexures are not new to me. After the team was established, it soon became apparent that the then Police Minister was directly influencing investigations.
“The fact that this task team is investigating politicians makes his operational involvement even more serious. As I have repeatedly pointed out, former Minister Cele is a long-standing, senior and influential member of the ANC in KZN (and elsewhere in areas in which team investigations may be taking place), and, since most of the killings I recorded in KZN, were of ANC officials, and evidence suggested they were intra-party conflicts, it was even more inappropriate for him to have anything to do with investigations in which his own colleagues, often senior, were suspects. (I and others know who they were).”
Professor De Haas reminds the Minister that “huge financial and personnel SAPS resources are being gobbled up for no good reason whatsoever by this completely unnecessary task team which has achieved virtually nothing in six years except, perhaps, to cover up for politicians, when these resources are urgently needed to fight against serious crime.”
In the one Appendix 3 – relating to the Cato Manor Case – Professor De Haas writes: “Members of the task team often let interesting information slip to the accused. One of them allegedly admitted that evidence implicating them was lacking, saying that the instruction to arrest them had come from General Khumalo and Minister Cele.”
She concludes with this warning: “Those who have been threatened and brutalized by members of the task team continue to live in fear that those same members will return and resort to the same tactics and possibly even kill them.”
BizNews has asked the Minister and the National Commissioner for comment. Should they respond, their comments will be added in full to this story.
*Meanwhile, read Professor De Haas’ letter (plus three annexures) to Minister Mchunu – and copied to Justice Minister Thembi Simelane and Parliament’s portfolio committees on Police and Justice:
Professor de Haas’ open letter
Annexure 1
Annexure 2
