Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has identified what it describes as material inconsistencies in suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu’s evidence.
The committee has been deliberating on a draft report running to more than 700 pages and is expected to continue its work on Wednesday.
A significant part of the latest deliberations focused on Mchunu’s directive to disband the Political Killings Task Team.
Committee members considered whether the dissolution of the task team could have aided organised crime groups.
Committee chairperson Soviet Lekganyane said the committee had made no findings against the so-called “Big Five” crime cartels, but said the decision to disband the task team had the potential to benefit organised crime groups and others with similar criminal intent.
The committee also scrutinised the subsequent movement of Political Killings Task Team case dockets from KwaZulu-Natal to Pretoria.
According to Parliament, members found shortcomings in docket management, case continuity and evidentiary safeguards.
The committee said dockets were transferred without settled docket-by-docket allocation, confirmed investigating officers and adequate arrangements for prosecutorial and witness continuity.
It further found that the transfer disrupted investigative and prosecutorial continuity in at least some matters and took place before a clear, written and consistently applied command decision had settled issues around authority, custody, allocation, prosecution and successor capacity.
The committee’s deliberations form part of its consideration of a draft report on the allegations made by Mkhwanazi, whose claims triggered a broader parliamentary examination of alleged corruption and interference within the criminal justice system.
The committee was scheduled to continue deliberating on Wednesday, 9 September.