John Matisonn: Is this fight about Mchunu for president?

Key topics:Power struggle over R600m Crime Intelligence slush fund linked to presidencySenzo Mchunu allegedly targeted fund control to boost 2027 ANC bidKey investigators suspended as corruption probes hit police leadership.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up for the BizNews channel here..By John Matisonn.The battle of the police generals is about control of the Crime Intelligence slush fund which holds the key to the presidency, some parliamentarians with oversight of the security cluster believe.“The plan was allegedly that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu would control it,” parliamentary police committee chairperson Ian Cameron said in a Nuuspod interview. “To do that they first had to get General Dumisani Khumalo out as head of Crime Intelligence.” MP Fadiel Adams described the R600million secret fund as “the ATM for certain high-ranking policemen and politicians. It’s a battle for control of the country,” he told Biznews TV’s Alec Hogg.In an interview with Biznews, Cameron described the allegation that the removal of Khumalo was the first step towards Mchunu’s elevation to the presidency as a “major theory coming from inside SAPS.”.Read more:.IN FULL: Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s sworn statement submitted to Parliament.Khumalo was arrested on June 26 at OR Tambo Airport. “That was unnecessarily high profile,” Cameron said. “It was a power grab. They thought that would neutralize him, but he fought back.” The plan was for General Shadrack Sibiya to become national police commissioner when the post fell vacant next year. They would bring in a new head of Crime Intelligence, General Feroz Khan.Before General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s explosive media conference on July 6, Mchunu’s chances of winning the ANC presidency at the 2027 party conference had declined. Most commentators speculated that the field had narrowed down to Deputy President Paul Mashatile as the frontrunner and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula as his only viable rival.But of the three, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s strongest ally is Mchunu. If he is the candidate for president, putting Mbalula on the ticket as deputy president could create a winning slate with the right resources. The Crime Intelligence secret fund was in the news after the 2017 ANC conference where the president was chosen because eavesdropping equipment known as a “grabber” was bought at an inflated price from the same fund. That deal enabled spies to listen in to conversations of ANC leaders, and it freed up funds using the overpayment to fund the rival presidential campaign.This time, “the plan allegedly was that Mchunu would control it,” Cameron said. Khumalo and national police commissioner Fannie Masemola face charges of fraud and corruption for the purchase of R120million in hotels using the slush fund.“Then they would drag out the case against Khumalo and Masemola. Before the national elections Mchunu will control it and become president. He would control the grabbers, and the funds.”This appears to echo another piece of history. Richard Mdluli was charged with corruption while he was head of Crime Intelligence, between 2008 and2012. “Remember, Richard Mdluli’s sons are in the police,” Cameron said. “One son is the head of a grabber unit.”The case against Masemola and Khumalo followed an investigation by the Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI), Imtiaz Fazel, into the use of the slush fund to buy several properties worth R120million.This week President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended Fazel, a move widely criticised by parliamentarians.Fazel’s suspension occurs at a time when multiple high-stakes investigations are closing in on a network of alleged corruption and political interference within our security apparatus, DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard said.“A disturbing pattern is emerging. Every credible person or entity such as IDAC, the IGI and IPID tasked with investigating the conduct of the National Commissioner of Police and the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner finds themselves under attack and discredited.”.Read more:.Police Minister Mchunu suspended over alleged criminal collusion, Ramaphosa launches judicial probe into syndicate infiltrating SA law enforcement.Adams said that despite suspicions about the circumstances behind the disbanding of the Political Killings Task Team, there is a valid argument that it was not an optimum use of resources. Their budget was R100milion to investigate 58 murders, when the police had only R7million to investigate 3,000 murders a year on the Cape flats.

John Matisonn: Is this fight about Mchunu for president?

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