Firoz Cachalia, the Acting Minister of Police. (Photo: South African Police Service / Facebook).
When Senzo Mchunu, the beleaguered minister of police, ordered in December 2024 that the police’s special task force for political murders in KwaZulu-Natal should be disbanded, this meant that 63 political murder cases were left unsolved.
Prof. Firoz Cachalia, the Acting Minister of Police, provided this figure in response to a recent parliamentary question from the uMkhonto weSizwe party (MKP).
Wesley Douglas, an MKP MP, asked Cachalia to provide him with the total number of unsolved political murder cases since 2011.
In response, Cachalia confirmed that a total of 56 cases of murder, four cases of attempted murder, two cases of conspiracy to commit murder and one case of defeating justice are still unsolved.
The minister also indicated that since 2011, 85 convictions have been secured in cases of political murder, as assigned to the police’s task force for political murders in KwaZulu-Natal.
The convictions ultimately resulted in 37 defendants being sentenced to life imprisonment and 14 others being sentenced to between 14 and 135 years in prison.
Senzo Mchunu, Minister of Police. (Photo: GCIS)
Yet on 31 December 2024, Mchunu wrote in the much-discussed dissolution letter that the special task force for political murders in KwaZulu-Natal “does not add any value to policing in South Africa” and ordered that the task force be disbanded.
Mchunu is accused of political interference in police investigations – and in particular the investigations into political murders.
Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner, recently testified before the parliamentary ad hoc committee that Mchunu was “hijacked” when he gave the order that the task force should be disbanded.
The ad hoc committee was set up in July last year to investigate Mkhwanazi’s allegations about political interference in police investigations, in particular the investigations into political murders, separately from the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.
The committee has since concluded its investigation.
The Madlanga Commission’s work continues.
Lt. genl. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, police commissioner in KwaZulu-Natal. (Photo: Facebook / South African Police Service).