Mchunu, the minister of police of South Africa, is accused of aiding criminal gangs and interfering with investigations into political murder
Senzo Mchunu, the police minister of South Africa, is accused of being involved with criminal gangs and interfering with investigations into political murder.
Senzo Mchunu, the minister of police in South Africa, is at the center of a growing political uproar after being charged with having connections to criminal gangs and meddling in inquiries into killings with political motivations.
During a dramatic news briefing on Sunday, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the police commissioner for KwaZulu-Natal, made the claims. He claimed the minister disbanded an elite police task group that was pursuing high-ranking suspects and that Mchunu is receiving financial support from a notorious businessman connected to a drug cartel.
While President Cyril Ramaphosa has called the issue “a grave national security concern” and pledged that it is receiving “the highest priority attention,” Minister Mchunu has refuted the “wild allegations.”
A task team established in 2018 to look into the increasing number of political killings in KwaZulu-Natal was making great strides, according to Gen. Mkhwanazi, until it was unceremoniously disbanded early this year on the minister’s orders.
Despite the fact that numerous murder cases with political connections remained unresolved, Mchunu asserted at the time that the unit was not contributing anything of value. Gen. Mkhwanazi now claims, however, that the decision was a part of a planned effort to halt investigations that had started to implicate high-ranking officials.
“Politicians, high-ranking police officers, and businesspeople involved in drug trafficking were linked by the unit,” Mkhwanazi stated. “121 case dockets were taken from the team upon its dissolution without permission from the national police commissioner and sent to the head office, where no additional investigations have been conducted.”
He stated that although arrest warrants had previously been prepared in five of those cases, none had progressed since March.
The provincial police chief further asserted that Mchunu’s political activities were being funded by a businessman named Vusimuzi Matlala, who had a lucrative SAPS contract that was later canceled.
In May, Matlala was taken into custody for attempting to kill someone. According to Gen. Mkhwanazi, he has proof of text communications and payments that connect the businessman and the minister directly.
During the announcement of a new interim director for the criminal intelligence branch later this week, national police commissioner general Fannie Masemola stated that he would address the accusations.
After Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo, the head of criminal intelligence, and six other people were detained last month on suspicion of fraud, corruption, and alleged misuse of intelligence money inside the South African Police Service (SAPS), the post became vacant.
As worries about the politicization of law enforcement and the SAPS’s capacity to combat ingrained corruption and criminal syndicates grow, the controversy is probably going to put further pressure on the police minister and the ruling ANC.
